Final Destination
by CocoNewt
Summary: A Kinn spin on Final Destination.  On their senior trip, Kurt has a vision and when several students are saved from a tragedy because of it, Death haunts the Glee Club and circles back to claim its victims. AU
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Final Destination

**Rating: **M for language, mature content, sexuality, strong violence, horror, gore

**Spoilers: **Through Furt but everything to be safe. All Final Destination movies.

**Summary: **A Kinn spin on Final Destination. On their senior trip, Kurt has a vision and when several students are saved from a tragedy because of it, Death haunts the Glee Club and circles back to claim its victims. Horror/Romance/Drama. AU.

**Warnings**: Character death! This is *horror*. There *will* be a body count. Nothing too graphic, but characters *will* die throughout the story. Also, suspend your disbelief. This franchise is a black comedy as much as it is horror, and it rolls the way it rolls.

**Disclaimer: **Tragically, I own nothing. Glee and Final Destination do not belong to me. The only character I'm using from FD is Death….and I don't own that guy either.

**A/N: **I love the Gleeks, so I hate to do this to them…but I love Halloween! Happy October, everyone! Not everyone will die, but NO ONE is safe. Reader, beware.

**A/N2: **Special thanks to itsfreakingworthit for being my beta and making the awesome poster for this fic, which you can find a link to on my profile!

**Chapter One**

Graduation was around the corner. Finally. Kurt could say goodbye to crappy Lima with its homophobia and small town fashion sense, shunning everything within it except for the three shining exceptions that made life in Ohio livable for the time being. He had his arm weaved through one of them at the moment, and he smiled at Mercedes as they trailed behind the rest of the group on their way to the next exhibit at the Sysco County Zoo.

It was only a four hour drive on a charter bus and as far as senior trips went, the zoo was kind of lame, but it was the best little McKinley could do on its seriously strained public school budget. Kurt had to admit it was kind of fun. The koalas were so adorable he almost died and Finn had to fan him under the glaring sun until he had his fill and managed to stop squealing over them.

The tall boy was a few paces ahead of them talking to Puck, and his heart leaped. He took some satisfaction at the fact that he truly believed it would never stop doing that at the sight of him. He knew the reality of how often people actually stayed with their high school sweethearts. It was a grim statistic, but under the bright clear afternoon sky he couldn't get himself to believe that anything on earth was strong enough to tear them apart. Finn was exception Numero Uno. Possibly dos. His father really should be uno. A little guiltily, he let them tie in his head. As Finn flashed him a smile over his shoulder, though, the guilt dwindled away forgotten. How could anyone lower _that_ on their list of favorite things?

The zoo was crawling with McKinley students, so he wasn't terribly surprised when Dave Karofsky and Azimio appeared at their side.

"Hey, Hummel," Karofsky smirked at him. "I just saw a monkey jerking off in its cage, and I thought it was you."

Azimio shoved Karofsky's shoulder with appreciative guffaws.

"No," Kurt drawled, utterly bored by his harassment these days. With the end of his sentence in Lima finally drawing to a close, he was ready to forget about these people altogether. "The one throwing shit at your face? That was me."

Karofsky's face darkened and he glared as he stepped closer to Kurt, but Finn was suddenly between them and shoved Karofsky backward before he got close enough to even graze him with his fingertips.

"Get lost, Karofsky." He warned and Kurt waited impatiently a few feet behind them with Mercedes as the boys sorted out the size of their jockstraps and determined whether the issue needed to escalate.

Puck stepped over to Finn's side. "Yeah, scram, before we throw you back in with the hippos. Those lazy bastards make you homesick, Karofsky?"

Karofsky hesitated and Mercedes raised her eyebrows stoutly. "Boy, you best be moving on or you'll be dealing with homeboy, Puckerman, and my diva ass. You get me?"

Kurt's lips twitched, but he repressed his smile. Yep, Mercedes was definitely top three.

"Whatever." Karofsky shoved Finn back to even the score board and turned with Azimio to walk ahead of them toward the arrow sign pointing ahead toward the aquariums.

Kurt yawned. He was so over it. Finn seemed to catch his pointed expression of disinterest because he didn't fuss afterward. They were on their senior class trip, and today was supposed to be about having fun and getting hyped for graduation in a few weeks. There was no room for mooning over Karofsky's ignorance. That guy would either get his act together one day or he wouldn't. It wasn't Kurt's problem.

Resuming his conversation with Puck, Finn grabbed Kurt's hand and they continued walking. The new aquarium had been the only part of the zoo that Kurt had looked forward to, so if Karofsky and company decided to piss all over his experience he was going to blow a gasket. As they drew closer to the line though his worries dissipated. Two of the chaperones on the trip, and probably the only two Kurt trusted to put an immediate stop to any Karofsky-isms, would be there with the other gleeks.

Finally after crossing the last of the uphill dirt path they made it to the cylindrical dome where a zoo employee in tan shorts and a tragic collared polo was counting people off at the door.

"Welcome to the Sysco County Zoo. I hope you enjoy our new exhibit." The pretty co-ed smiled brightly at their group, and Kurt decided to forgive her for the ugly uniform. Her makeup was gorgeous, and she probably had much better taste off the clock.

"Thanks." Puck winked at her as she opened the door for them and managed to make the one word sound like a position in the Kama Sutra. As soon as they stepped inside, though, he spotted his girlfriend ahead in the line and cupped his hands over his mouth. "Get back here, sugar momma!"

Lauren gave Tina a look but left her and Mike to amble back towards her boyfriend. It was pushing ninety-eight degrees outside and the sudden rush of air conditioning inside the long waiting terminal was refreshing. The floor was a ten foot wide bridge designed to make it seem like it had more give than it actually did. The reinforced panels sunk with their steps minutely, enough to add a slight thrill to the glass walls that encased the long bridge walkway to the actual door to the aquarium. The ceiling was domed and metallic creating a tunnel ambience.

Mr. Schuester was laughing and standing in Ms. Pillsbury's personal space, forcing Kurt's slightly grossed out mind to wonder if his Glee coach had managed to hit that yet. The guidance counselor giggled and shied her eyes away from Schuester, and Kurt figured not. She still wore gloves and scrubbed her grapes at lunch. Maneuvering past that kind of brain barrier had to be tricky, but when his mind started to go in the gutter he forced his thoughts off the teachers altogether. Because, ew.

For the most part everyone had scattered and done their own thing for the day, but the Glee Club had decided ahead of time to gather at 1:15 and check out the new exhibit together. Kurt's foursome was right on time it seemed. There were only a few people ahead of them to separate them from their group, including a middle aged couple and the jockholes themselves. It didn't matter much though. As long as they were let inside in the same group they were free to mingle and move around as they pleased. He counted heads.

The rest of the Glee Club was already there outside the door to the actual aquarium waiting for the attendant next to it to start allowing a new group inside.

"Ooh hell no!" Mercedes was holding onto the metal railing twined with tan frazzled rope that ran along the sides of the bridge, looking out through the glass. Kurt removed his Calvin Klein heavy black rimmed sunglasses and tucked a leg securely into the pocket of his tight white jeans, joining her.

"Hell no, indeed." He concurred.

Thirty feet below the bridge, swampy water was full of slow moving alligators. Their long scaled tails cut above the water and striking dark eyes rose above the surface as they swam and rested. Kurt eyed them with apprehension. Setting the closed-in bridge to the aquariums over an alligator marsh certainly created a nice little fear box for the people waiting to go in. He wondered who designed it and whether they were crazy or a genius. Fear sells after all. Six Flags wasn't lucrative for nothing. People pursued adrenaline rushes like crack. Much healthier, less addictive crack.

"Sweet." Puck stared down at the prehistoric creatures with a smirk.

Lauren eyed them studiously. "You know alligators drown their prey before they eat it? They lock their jaws around the head and twist them around under water until they die. It's called a death roll. It's awesome."

Puck looked at her with some reverence and nodded enthusiastically as he repeated, "_Sweet._"

Kurt couldn't deny they had a certain power in their nature, but he would be much happier when they were allowed off the bridge and into the aquariums. Whales. Dolphins. Those were majestic _and_ pretty. And he was fairly certain Free Willy and Flipper never death rolled anyone.

Finn eyed them dubiously. "How much do they eat?"

Lauren frowned. "I'm not sure. But a lion can eat upwards of eighty pounds in a single meal."

"Whoa." Puck looked away from the animals below them in awe. "That's like a whole Rachel."

"Eighty pounds per meal." Kurt looked over at Finn wryly. "They're the Finns of the animal kingdom."

Finn looked sheepish but didn't deny it. He ate like others breathed, all the time with little pause. The tall boy looked at Lauren curiously.

"So are you going to be like a zoo…keeper…ologist, or something?" He asked.

The girl shook her head. "Nah. Just watch a lot of Animal Planet. Animals are gnarly. They eat, sleep, mate and kill each other. Like us, but they don't philosophize to make it more than it is."

Kurt raised his chin slightly and shared a look with Mercedes. Lauren clearly was not a patriot to her own species. Still…kind of true.

Up ahead of them Brittany was leaning her nose as close to the glass as possible and asked Santana idly, "Can alligators marry crocodiles or is that illegal?"

"I don't know." Santana shrugged. "Alligators probably mate with other alligators."

Brittany looked at her sadly. "Gay marriages aren't allowed yet, Santana. All alligators are girls and all crocodiles are boys. Everyone knows that."

Finn was listening and absorbing that too, so Kurt shook his head at him to dismiss the falsehood before it sunk in too deep. As he allowed his attention to wander, Finn came up behind him and wrapped his arms around his stomach drawing him closer. Kurt relaxed against him, content beyond reason. It was crazy to him that two years into dating Finn, the quarterback could still make him feel as warm as a trim cut Giorgio Armani parka.

"You having fun?" Finn asked into his ear, and even if he hadn't been, with Finn's lips so close to him in that moment he would have said yes.

Before he could answer, there was a camera in his face with the red recording light on. Jacob, the most obnoxious and actively annoying student at McKinley High, took a step back to widen the shot and looked at the picture in the small preview screen. As always, he was neither wanted nor welcome.

"Finn, word in the front office is that you're going to state school next year while Kurt's off to Parsons." He began interviewing them despite Kurt's clear frown. "Does this mean that McKinley's premiere gay couple is calling it quits?"

"Go away, Jacob," Kurt hissed at the same time Finn said, "_No._"

Going to different schools with miles and miles _and miles_ between them was a touchy subject, and Jacob with his big fro and nosy questions wasn't going to ruin Kurt's day. He stepped away from Finn and raised his finger to him testily.

"Unless you want that camera in a gator pit you better wave it at someone else." He warned.

Jacob hesitated until Lauren took a step toward him, and he scurried off to the back of the line. Kurt raised an eyebrow of appreciation toward the formidable girl, and she nodded. A leap of excitement pulsed through Kurt as he noticed the attendant mutter some dorky zoo attendant lingo into his walkie-talkie and get confirmation that the group ahead of them had passed through the exit on the other side. She opened the door for them to begin filing in, and Kurt bounced on his heels. Finn grinned at him knowingly.

Since they got word of their trip Kurt had talked endlessly-and with much too much vigor-about the shiny new aquarium exhibit they just opened. It was high-end business for Ohio and took a lot of fundraising and state help to get it built. It sounded expensive and extravagant and Kurt was thrilled to be there only three weeks after it opened. The zoo was still crawling with tourists because of it, but that was actually kind of fun. One of Finn's new favorite things was photo bombing, where he jumped in the background when someone was taking a picture and made a stupid face to ruin it, so the tourist packed zoo had kept him and Puck entertained for most of the morning.

"Be careful in there, Hummel." Azimio leaned back to sneer. "I hear sharks can smell queers."

Kurt glowered, but his snappy retort was cut off as Schue appeared in a surprisingly helpful intervention. Honestly, sometimes Kurt wondered if Schue purposefully looked the other way when he was being harassed by McKinley's bottom rung.

"These two are going with the next group." He told the attendant and pointed to Karofsky and Azimio. The jocks instantly sobered and glared.

Jacob scooted forward, recording Schuester and commentating. "McKinley's sexually ambiguous Mr. Schuester once again favoring his Glee Club over others. Perhaps hoping to create friendships among his students to compensate for a lack of healthy adult companions. It raises the question, does nepotism better serve the favored or the one doing the favoring?"

Schue stared at him with his mouth slightly open and glanced back at the attendant. "Him too."

With a grin and no shortage of satisfaction, Kurt maneuver past the rebuffed students with his friends and joined the other gleeks as they walked over the loose feeling floor and through the door ahead.

It opened into a dark staircase that descended a full story down to enter the underground aquarium. Shimmering blue light filtered over the white lights built into the steps for guidance and the door above them closed as the attendant waited for the next group to gather. Kurt showed Finn and Mercedes pictures he got off the internet, but it still didn't prepare him for the breathtaking reality.

As they stepped down into the exhibit, one by one breaths hitched and whispers escaped surprised mouths. Kurt's eyes lit brightly and his mouth curved up in a gratified smile.

Beside him, Finn looked up, eyes growing. "Whoa."

Except for a strip of solid silver paneling that ran in a fifteen foot line across the rounded ceiling, the walls on both sides arched up surrounding the room in full glass. Kurt thought briefly that this must be what it was like to be inside a snow globe. Only it was a really beautiful snow globe. The temperature down there was at least a dozen degrees lower than the air conditioned bridge terminal above. It raised instant goose bumps to his skin, but that also might have been because of the sheer majesty in his surroundings.

It opened into the biggest attraction. Sharks. Beautiful, powerful, terrifying Great Whites swam around the manmade habitat as at home as they would have been in the ocean. With Santana's hands over her eyes, Brittany and her bestie walked straight through the shark aquarium and pulled the door open at the end of the long tunnel to enter the next one where less threatening swimmers would be showcased. There was a huge circular window in the wall between the shark terminal and the next one, so he could see Brittany clearly as she looked up and saw something much more her speed and began bouncing on her heels.

Mike began dancing around Tina and set his hand up on the back of his neck in the dorkiest impersonation of a shark before making his best underwater monster face and bumping into her. Tina shoved him away, making a face at his antics that was bellied by her amusement before moving out the way Brittany and Santana had. Mike kept his hand/fin on his neck and zoomed after her, biting at her neck until she swatted him and disappeared through the door.

"Creepy." Mercedes had her arms crossed over her chest as she stared at a shark swimming alongside the glass wall at eye level. She took a couple steps back.

Finn stepped closer. "I think they're kinda…totally awesome."

Kurt agreed with both of them. The closest shark was at least fifteen feet long and clearly one solid muscle of intense natural prowess against other species. While it was definitely unnerving, it was also rather humbling. Nature at its strongest.

Looking out the other wall, Rachel stood close to Mr. Schuester and though her voice was lower than usual Kurt could clearly make out the words 'Little Mermaid', 'mash-up', and 'Nationals'. He snorted. Leave it to Rachel to be staring at something incredible and still find a way to bring it back to show choir. Kurt really didn't see them singing 'Under the Sea' at Nationals next week, but now that song and the singing lobster were stuck in his head.

Artie was rolled up down the same side as Rachel looking up at the swimming sharks in wonder. He poked Sam. "If I were an animal, I would definitely be a shark." He decided.

Sam crooked his eyebrow. "Dude, we're gleeks. We'd be the fish the sharks _eat._"

Artie frowned, and nearby Quinn and Ms. Pillsbury shared a guilty look of agreement.

Beyond the nearest shark, a black steel cage was being lowered into the water on a crank, and Kurt gathered that it was feeding time. A man in black scuba gear, flippers, goggles, and air tank strapped to his back held onto one of the bars as the cage descended. There was a giant chest in the cage that was built into the bottom to keep from floating around once it was submerged and a long silver pole in the man's free hand. Now there was a job Kurt would sooner die than accept. There was also a good chance he would die if he did accept, considering he couldn't swim.

"Dude, he's gonna feed 'em!" Puck slapped Finn's arm and he obligingly swung his attention in the other direction.

A chill swept through Kurt, giving him an odd sense of déjà vu. It must have been the internet pictures he already saw of the place. It was playing tricks with his head. He stepped up to Finn's side and wove his arm through his silently.

The heavy black chain lowering the cage suddenly stopped and the cage jerked awkwardly. The man in scuba gear jostled against the bars and looked up as though confused. The air mask on his face hid any readable expression from view, but he swam up to the ceiling of the 12'-by-6' cage and looked around. Kurt stepped up close to the glass, releasing Finn as he was out of reach, and tried to get a better look.

The chain looked tight and taut, and he realized that the cage wasn't supposed to stop descending so soon. The crank must have stopped. After hesitating a moment, the man went back down and over to the chest, pulling the top open. He grabbed the pole and stabbed it through a package, lifting it up and shedding the cover off before poking it through the bars. A bloody chunk of something that made Kurt's stomach turn sent pink ripples in the water and in no time two sharks swam up and bit at it.

Puck pointed excitedly. "Dude, look at those hungry bastards. Probably love to get ahold of you. Breakfast, lunch, _and_ dinner, Gigantor."

Kurt looked back at Finn who frowned at the comment and took a small step away from the glass. Mercedes laughed at his show of cowardice and went up next to Kurt, suddenly emboldened, as though their moods transferred to each other.

After a couple more packets of fish guts or whatever disgusting thing it was, the cage shook and rose slightly. The shark feeder looked up with the pole in his hands. His flippers swished in the water as he kicked, and Kurt followed his eye line back up to the chain. Without warning, the chain suddenly became slack and rolled down loosely as though the crank began rapidly spitting it out. The cage floated downward, but all at once the thick chain reversed, recoiling upward and snapped the cage up as it tensed. One wall of bars smacked into the scuba diver as it plowed suddenly upward, swinging to the side after the abrupt jerk.

Kurt flinched and immediately backed up with Mercedes. Quinn gasped looking over her shoulder, and the others looking out the opposite wall turned to see what was going on. The cage popped against the glass wall and everyone standing along it took stumbling steps back. The cage slammed up and caught on something out of their sight behind the steel strip of ceiling.

"Oh shit!" Puck exclaimed.

The sharks continued to circle the area where the fish had been poked out for them, but as the lid to the chest floated open and the packages came out they seemed to smell it in the water and swam close to the wall in anticipation of being fed. The cage zoomed up some more, and everyone looked skyward as it came to another abrupt halt. A resounding thud echoed through the tunnel. Kurt craned his neck and saw that it was now sitting directly on top of the steel ceiling, one corner hanging over onto the glass, the hanging edge grinding upward but unable to move off the ceiling as though the cage was caught on something that was forcing it in place. A pipe maybe or a piece of the steel ceiling.

"Oh my God!" Tina shouted panicked from the next room in the terminal and the screams of the others stabbed through Kurt like an iced machete. He jerked his head in the direction of the huge circular window/wall between rooms and saw the goth girl stumble backward and trip.

A crack in the glass created a thick lightning bolt of white as it cut down the wall and in an instant split the barrier between the terminal and aquarium open. A stunning ten foot hole blew inward, suctioning water into the underground tunnel. A huge spear of glass shot directly down into Santana's back and knocked her to the floor as the water poured in. Brittany lost her footing in the rush of water at her feet and fell back over Santana, head popping the floor and body going limp. Before Kurt could take a second breath the aquarium on the other side crumbled, cracking rapidly and bursting. The instant onslaught of hundreds of tons of water collided with Tina and Mike and forced them back in a powerful wave. They plowed into the circular window almost simultaneously, their heads pounding the glass and splattering thick red blood across the transparent surface.

"Mike! Tina!" Schue yelled in horror and lurched forward, grabbing the handle on the door. Kurt's heart leapt into his throat in a panic seeing the mistake in Schuester's desperate move to help. Water was already flooding through the bottom crack in the door in a rapid stream and as soon as he tugged it open the swell of water crashed through the opening. A long square of heavy reinforced glass rode the intense pressure of the flood and drove itself straight through the teacher's chest and out the other side.

Rachel's scream was so piercing it jolted Kurt from his state of frozen horror. Digging his nails into Finn's wrist, he reached for Mercedes blindly and began stumbling clumsily backward toward the staircase. The water splashed the floor in a rampant flood of speed, and they fell screaming a dozen feet from the bottom step.

As they went down, the room around Kurt seemed to explode. As though a giant swung its hammer into either side of the aquarium, the walls blew in spewing glass everywhere and pumping in thousands of gallons of water in a tidal wave of pressure. Kurt choked and desperately reached for a buoy as the water level rose too quickly for him to track. The water stung his eyes and he blinked quickly against it.

"Finn!" He screamed as the water surged and pushed him under. His arms outstretched in terror, reaching for help or hope or reality. His mind was spinning in shocked disbelief, unable to grasp the circumstances around him. As he sunk farther and reached for nothing and anything, he was met with a sudden reality check. Two body lengths away, a Great White pulled back its jaws and surged forward. Kurt screamed and the air expelled into the water releasing a stream of soundless bubbles.

Two hands roughly grabbed his arm and yanked. He pulled out of the way and his head abruptly broke the surface. He gasped for air and spun in Finn's arms, twisting to look for the shark. With him out of the path, it continued in a beeline for the next closest and before Kurt could so much as shout a warning the shark slammed its jaws around Sam and expelled a swell of misty pink water around the wound.

"Hold on! Kurt!" Finn shook him and the violent jolt cut short a stream of screams that Kurt hadn't known he was releasing. Finn was kicking in the disorienting terminal, swimming hard against the push of the water still flowing in on both sides. Kurt fumbled with shaking hands but rearranged himself at his side and clutched his shoulders so hard his fingers ached. Finn struggled as hard as he could but the undertow was too powerful and sucked them under again. They were forced back and Kurt lost some of his hold.

His body bumped something solid and he screamed soundlessly into the water again as he turned to see a shark but found himself met with Artie's lifeless body instead. He was out of his chair and floating limply with his eyes pink and open. Kurt snaked his arms around Finn's neck, head spinning in every direction. The cold water pulsed against his vision but he refused to blink. Behind them Ms. Pillsbury was stuck in the circular windowsill, impaled on a jagged edge of glass still sticking in the giant pane. The blood pouring from her abdomen was permeating the water. Mercedes was kicking nearby trying to fight the current and push away from the wall beside the broken window, but the bloody water was swirling around her legs. The lack of oxygen mixed with his sudden sickened panic and blotted out his vision in spurts of white. Thick grey fins cut through the water like razor blades and Mercedes' eyes had time to grow before three sharks drove their teeth into her limbs and began to fight for their share.

Kurt had no air left to scream and the result was choking in water through his mouth and nose as he reacted to the horrible scene of his best friend being torn apart. The white spots in his eyes blackened and he felt horribly light and overwrought with too many impulses at once. He clenched his eyes shut against the sight and began to jerk uncontrollably. _Air! He needed air!_

And suddenly they were moving. His arms instantly clasped tighter around Finn, and they were back at the surface. His lungs were burning from the water he inhaled and he coughed hard against it, sputtering and spitting it out. The water was much higher now. Only a few feet separated them from the ceiling.

"Finn! Come on, man! Hurry the fuck up!" Puck was halfway up the stairs in the narrow enclosed stairwell, knees deep in water, waving his friend on manically. Farther up, Lauren was soaked and struggling to get herself up the stairs.

Without warning, Kurt abruptly felt them being pulled downward and after a shocked moment of not understanding, pain like he never experienced ripped up his legs. He looked down and the air left him instantly. A shark was biting down on both his legs and one of Finn's, binding them together between his lethally sharp rows of teeth. Kurt's heart went into overdrive, beating so hard against his ribcage it felt like it was breaking. The nerves in his legs were sending so many panicked signals to his brain that he was close to blacking out again.

One of Finn's legs was free and he twisted in the shark's mouth pounding it down onto its head. Its jaws didn't so much as loosen, and Finn kicked again. Twice more and the heel of his sneaker popped into the shark's eye. At first it only twitched, but when Finn kicked it twice over the burst socket the shark shook them in its mouth and released. Kurt pulled his bitten, bleeding legs away, feeling the deep cuts stretch from his calves all the way up to his thighs from its massive bite.

Puck was suddenly in the water with them, reaching for Finn, but the shark had struck again and this time its bite only latched around Finn. Its teeth sunk into his shoulder and neck and he jerked him around with such incredible force Finn's head wagged over his neck roughly and Kurt's bloated eardrums filled with the contained sound of a large underwater snap. Finn's kicks instantly stopped, and he was thrust weightlessly in the shark's ferocious attack.

Kurt sunk farther down, body so raked with pain and mind in such a blinding state of shock that he didn't fight as he descended. Numbly, Kurt absorbed Rachel swimming frantically a dozen feet away from him, but as a fresh current swept below her she was forced several feet back and jerked as she slammed backward over a piece of glass jutting out from the aquarium wall. Beside her, Quinn released a long silent scream but there was no air in it. Eyes bulging she tugged at her skirt. She was stuck and wiggling desperately to free herself, but the efforts were weak and with a look of shock her muscles finally relaxed and she floated sightlessly beside Rachel's impaled body.

Kurt's own body was beginning to accept defeat, but once again someone was tugging at one of his arms and pulling him up. He swung his eyes over to Puck, kicking furiously under the water for the staircase. The spots had returned to Kurt's vision, and he succumbed to them momentarily before feeling solid ground under him. Lauren smacked him across the face, and he came right back to the horror around him. His nostrils were on fire and his throat felt like someone jammed a toothbrush coated with acid down the length of it.

Puck was throwing him on his feet, and he realized he was out of the water. He looked over his shoulder as he was shoved up and saw the room filled with water only a few feet down. A long fin jutted out of the surface over the bottom of the staircase alcove as a looming mass swam off in the other direction. He turned back around and stumbled on into the chaos above.

The door was wide open and the attendant was staring down screaming into her walkie-talkie at an earsplitting pitch while people on the bridge were gathered around the doorway peering down into the gloomy blue lit flooded aquarium in horror and stunned disbelief.

Lauren pushed past Karofsky, Azimio and Jacob and onto the bridge walkway. Puck shoved Kurt forward onto the plank and they were only a few steps out when a loud groan reverberated in the domed passage. The groan turned into a roar as the floor beneath them shifted and dropped significantly as the roped railings slanted downward with a metallic creak. Kurt was barely on his feet as it was, when the cacophony of panic erupted around him, he barely had time to reach for the nearest railing before the floor shifted again. The metal railing broke free of the wall, snapping down and with a deafening split, the wooden panels lost their foundation and grew loose, creating a big gap between the glass walls and floor. Kurt held onto the railing, barely able to scrape his feet along the bridge to help hold himself up.

All along the packed bridge, people not gripping the railing fell to the loose floorboards, and in a moment of white hot clarity amidst his utter amazement Kurt realized that it wasn't going to hold. The door that opened to the safety of the high ground on the other side of the terminal was pulled open by the nearest person. Kurt caught sight of the girl who worked the entrance earlier, up close to the aquarium's direct entrance having obviously moved in to talk to her co-worker when the commotion downstairs began.

Several people at the far end were able to hold on and pull themselves up and through the door, including five kids and what appeared to be their desperate mother. The bridge sagged again and as a heavyset man a few feet away from him fell hard upon it, it gave way. The ropes between the panels snapped and the bridge fell away, swinging down and slapping the sides of the solid walls on either side. Lauren fell between blinks. Kurt almost missed it as she swept downward to the alligator pit thirty feet below. He gripped the railing harder, muscles protesting his desperate clench.

"Lauren!" Puck yelled, holding onto the rail on the opposite side and looking down, face sick with shock.

Kurt looked down and saw the hard, scaled backs of the alligators as they moved over the water, snapping at each other. The high pitched screams of women and the gruffer ones of men were coming at him from all sides as one by one they lost their grip or slipped. They landed hard on the ground below with a heavy crushed sound that Kurt would never forget. As the second adolescent girl let go of the rail and shrieked all the way down, Kurt squeezed his eyes shut and shook so roughly it felt like he was vibrating from the inside out.

Puck grunted and squirmed, but he only had one hand wrapped around a piece of loose rope and didn't have any claim on the actual railing. His fingers clenched and his arm shook, but the stress was too much and in a silent release he kicked downward and landed smack over several quarrelling alligators. Kurt forced his eyes away and had a startling moment of self-awareness. In a shockingly short time he lost nearly everyone he had in the entire world. Almost everyone he loved and everyone who loved him. He looked toward the door at the end of the terminal, only twenty feet away but much too far to reach, and realized he wasn't going to get there.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kurt saw a flash of silver move as a video camera fell and looked over in time to see Jacob straining. One of his wrists was tangled in the rope along the rail, burning his skin and turning his hand purple. He screamed against the tight hold and dangled from the bridge by it. Azimio reached desperately for Karofsky as the railing slipped from one of his hands, and when the other jock lost his grip they clawed at the bridge, clumsy hands gripping a lower rung.

Kurt hung there, palms burning against the ropes, legs aching and pulsing, bleeding and burning from the deep bites torn into his muscles. Hot tears poured down the corners of his pink rimmed, stinging eyes, and his muscles quit. Fear like he never felt it clawed through his every sense and electrified his every nerve. His hands fell away from the roped railing and he freefell through the air toward the alligator marsh below-

Kurt gasped and stumbled backward, feet suddenly back on solid ground. He flinched hard and began to shake as he flipped his head back and forth. He was back on the bridge. The bridge was perfectly in place, only a slight normal give under his feet. The railings were attached, and the sun shined innocently through the glass walls guarding the terminal. McKinley students were loitering around preparing to go in now that the attendant had opened the door to go down to the aquarium.

"It raises the question," Jacob was saying as he filmed Mr. Schuester, his unruly fro sticking out all around his head in a frizzy mess. "Does nepotism better serve the favored or the one doing the favoring?"

Schue stared at him with his mouth slightly open and glanced back at the attendant. "Him too."

At that point Kurt was shaking so hard he felt like he might scoot right out of his body. Beside him, Finn put an arm on his closest shoulder and looked down at him concerned.

"Kurt? You okay?"

Up ahead, Tina and Mike were preparing to go down, grabbing onto either side of Artie's chair to assist him down the stairs. A switch in Kurt flipped, because whatever was going on-whatever was happening-he knew all the way down to his bones that it was real. He could still feel the cool wash of water dragging him under and the intensely excruciating agony of being attacked by a shark. His friends were alive. Somehow. By some miracle. They were alive, and they could _not_ go down there.

"Stop!" He shouted at Tina and Mike, wincing at the memory of them slamming into the window like cheap toys being thrown against a block of pavement. "Don't!"

Finn was the closest so he flinched the hardest at his side, but several others jerked or gasped in surprise at his sudden outburst as well.

"No! No! No! No!" Kurt pushed his way forward and grabbed Tina's arm rougher than his frazzled mind could prevent. He yanked on her hard and she stumbled back, dropping her side of Artie's chair and making it bounce awkwardly back to the floor of the bridge. She cried out in protest, and Mike was instantly there, surprise on his face as he grabbed Kurt's arm and forced it off Tina, shoving him backward and moving in front of his girlfriend.

"Kurt!" Mercedes looked taken aback and Finn weaved past Puck, Lauren and Ms. Pillsbury to get to him.

Kurt paid them no attention. "You can't go down there!" He insisted, eyes growing urgently. He reached for Tina again. Mike made a confused but determined face as he blocked him, and Finn wrapped his arms around his shoulders, hauling him back should Mike feel the need to use force again.

"You'll die if you go down there!" Kurt shouted, jittering against Finn whose eyes jumped to the size of saucers at that exclamation. Mike's jaw dropped and Tina gaped at him as though he had grown a second head.

"Kurt, what's going on?" Schuester asked, stepping forward.

Ms. Pillsbury shadowed him. She wasn't very good at hiding the disconcerted look of bewilderment on her face as she tried to handle the situation. "Kurt, do you want to step outside and talk about what you're feeling?"

"The aquarium!" He insisted, twisting free of Finn's grip and staring at the others imploringly. "It breaks! I don't know how it happens! I don't know, but it breaks and then the bridge falls apart and everybody dies!"

Brittany stiffened and screamed, turning instantly and running back down the bridge toward the exit. Santana scoffed, turning a glare on Kurt with a bitchy look of incredulity.

"Thanks a lot, Buzzkill Barbie." She snapped and trotted off after Brittany in her yellow shorty shorts, ponytail swinging behind her.

"Kurt, did you take something?" Mr. Schue purposefully lowered his voice and stared at him critically.

"Of course not!" Finn answered for him indignantly, and then wavered looking down at Kurt with trepidation. "…Did you?"

"Listen to me!" Kurt tried desperately. "No! Wait!" He screamed at his friends as Mike beckoned Sam over to help him out with Artie's wheelchair.

"You're trippin' yo." Artie shook his head at Kurt. "I did not wait in line for twenty minutes to have to go back out in the blazing heat. Gentlemen." He raised his hands in invitation and Sam and Mike obligingly picked up either side of his chair.

"Sorry, Kurt." Tina offered sympathetically before turning and following them down the first few steps.

"Guys!" Schue called out to them, but Ms. Pillsbury held up a hand helpfully.

"I'll go down with them. We'll meet back around the front." The guidance counselor offered. "Anyone else?"

"Yeah, we'll go with this group." Karofsky moved toward Kurt mockingly as he walked to the front with Azimio on his heel. He leaned in close to Kurt. "Since the queer's gone _psycho_."

Finn's arm flew out and shoved Karofsky in the chest forcing him back. Karofsky reacted immediately, shoving Finn back with both arms. As Azimio stepped forward, Puck pushed past Jacob, who was recording the whole thing with happy jazzed eyes, and launched himself at the other jock. Karofsky shoved Finn again, and Puck drew his arm back and punched him square in the face. Finn stumbled into Kurt making him trip backward into the opposite guard rail. Azimio grabbed Puck by the collar and twisted as he threw him back into the glass wall.

The bridge shifted minutely under their feet, and as Puck popped into the glass, his arm flew out wide, elbow catching Rachel in the face. She fell down in surprise and Quinn gasped, kneeling beside her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders as she brought her back to her feet. Rachel's lip was bleeding and her eyes were round in surprise as Mercedes went to her other side and wrapped an arm around her waist. Quinn raised her other arm as a guard and they began guiding her past the scuffling boys back the way they came.

"Out! All of you!" Schuester shouted at them, stepping between the boys and having to push Puck in the chest when he started for Azimio for screwing his face up at him over Schue's shoulder. "Now!" He threw an apologetic look at the zoo attendant and began forcing them all out.

He grabbed Kurt by the arm and pulled him along, but Kurt struggled against him.

"You have to listen to me! You _have to _listen to me!" Kurt tried to break free of the teacher, but he tightened his grip and called to Finn. As Finn came back and grabbed Kurt's other side to help haul him out Kurt descended into tears.

Lauren waved at Puck as he neared the door on the other side. "See you on the outside, babe." She called with a smirk before following Ms. Pillsbury down the stairs.

Kurt gulped for air desperately. "I saw it! The crank on the feeding cage breaks-everyone dies! Please don't let them go down there!"

Finn's face was soft and strained as he stared down at him helplessly, not knowing what to do. They successfully pulled him out of the terminal and the sun swept over the goose bumps on Kurt's arms and warmed his skin despite the growing cold around his heart. By the time they were safely away from the attention of the attendant by the outside door, Kurt was crying so hard he could barely stand upright. Finn stepped back and swatted at Jacob's camera as he brought it right into Kurt's face, but Schue held onto him as he tried to run back to the aquarium shouting with manic urgency to get them out.

Jacob stepped out of reach of Finn but kept recording, "You saw it here first, folks. Calm and Collected Kurt has morphed before our eyes into Crazy Coo-coo Kurt. They're going to have to check _his_ robes at graduation."

Puck reached over and shoved Jacob with much more force than Finn had, aiming for his arm instead of the camera and successfully ramming him several feet away.

"Dude, what's up with your boy?" Puck was staring at Kurt as though he might combust at any moment. Finn didn't answer, watching Kurt closely with his hands extended somewhat as though he wanted to touch him but wasn't sure how smart it was.

"Listen to me!" Kurt shouted in Schue's face, and then abruptly they didn't need to.

Screams started wafting out from the bridge terminal. The attendant outside heard them at the same time and stopped staring over at Kurt to pull the door open and look inside. The screams grew in volume and intensity, and Kurt knew it was all over. Schue's brow creased and he took off for the door. The others shot Kurt similar looks before running after him. Kurt's legs felt like jelly, but he forced himself to jog through the numbness. He stopped with the others at the door jam and held onto the structure for support as he shouted for the remaining people on the bridge to get off.

"The bridge is going to break! Get off!"

Several people fled without needing further warnings, banging into Puck and Azimio as they ran out. The others at the opposite end were too horrorstruck by what they were peering down at in the corridor below and started off too late. As they ran for the exit, the railing snapped off the side and the bridge gave out beneath them. Swears and shouts joined their terrified cries as they fell through the air hopelessly.

Kurt stumbled backward unsteadily, crossing his arms over his stomach and shaking. As he gulped down and repressed the heavy sobs threatening to consume him, he saw the looks on the girls' faces as they all stared at him. Mercedes stepped away from Rachel and wrapped her arms around Kurt. He shook harder in her embrace and looked over her shoulder at Finn as he slowly turned away from the horrible scene in front of him and looked back at Kurt. Breathlessly, he locked eyes with him until Kurt lost all control, dropped his head to Mercedes' shoulder and wept.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews and alerts! Wasn't sure how Glee horror would be received, so I'm glad it went over well here and at LJ. :)

**Chapter Two**

'_The nation is still reeling from the freak accident earlier this week at the Sysco County Zoo here in Ohio.'_ The reporter was saying on the plasma screen in the living room, bought bigger and tackier than necessary because Finn and Burt voted and their love of sports canceled out Kurt and Carole's call for taste. Both men were on the couch now in suits as they waited for their significant others to finish getting ready for the memorial. Kurt was leaning in the doorway out of notice, looking at the local newsfeed. The story about what happened was running on CNN too, which meant the country and the world were watching for details like it was the most interesting preview for a movie they had seen in years. But none of them would ever know what it actually felt like. None of them would ever _get it_.

'_Unpredictable malfunctions in the multi-million dollar aquarium exhibit's pump, used to regulate the pressure in the water of the habitat, combined with a break in the motor of the crank used to lower feeding cages into the tanks, to ultimately lead to the implosion of two of the aquarium's terminals. The infrastructure was built into the closed-in bridge walkway leading to the aquarium and its destruction ultimately led to the bridge's own structural failures. Impalements and_ sharks _washed into the terminals during feeding time caused the death of twenty-one people; including one zoo worker, five students and a teacher there for a senior class trip. Now that notifications have been made, a list of survivors has been released including seventeen year old, Kurt Hummel.'_

Kurt blanched as his yearbook picture from the year before popped up on screen in a large square with a white border.

'_Several eyewitnesses, including fellow student, Jacob Ben Israel, have alleged that Hummel made outlandish, adamant warnings before the incident claiming to have seen the accident _in a vision._ He attempted to warn others, but unfortunately for so many people that day, the warning went unheeded.'_ The reporter arched an eyebrow and turned to his co-anchor as the camera angle widened to include her. _'Psychic vision. What do you make of that?'_

She pat her palms down on the top of the desk, masking her real reaction with the typical interested but un-opinionated anchor expression. _'Creepy.'_

Kurt looked down at himself, mind detaching from the situation in a helpful foggy way and focusing on his outfit. Grey tailored slacks, a black knit sweater and ascot. He couldn't wear that. The grey was all wrong and his shoes didn't go with them at all. His mind began running over all of his dozens of options again, sticking to a category of thought that he could easily comprehend and fuss over unemotionally. As he was turning to go back upstairs, Finn glanced over his shoulder and spied him in the doorway.

Kurt hurriedly made his way back to his room in the new house the Hudson-Hummels had moved into. Months had gone by, and he was still finding little things that he needed to adjust to at the new house with two new people. He almost tripped on one of Finn's sneakers sitting haphazardly midway up the stairs. Finn's messiness. That was one thing that he definitely wasn't accustomed to. His father wasn't Mr. Clean either, but he was always good about not discarding things on the floor wherever he stood. Finn brought lazy and nonchalant to a new level. A level Kurt didn't particularly like. They rarely fought but when they did it usually started along the lines of, "Finn, why did you leave so-and-so lying in the middle of the table/floor/stairs, etc."

Wasn't exactly fair. What other teenager had to deal with the ins-and-outs of living with their boyfriend? People finding out that their parents were married always put knots in his stomach as well. No matter how much they stressed that they started dating before their parents were married, that their parents only met because they were dating and Finn's mom wanted to meet Kurt's dad to show support. PFLAG was a wonderful organization. It taught tolerance and educated those around newly out teens, but Carole had insisted Burt join the Lima chapter with her. One thing led to another, and now Kurt had the wonderfully awkward misfortune of being the legal stepbrother of his longtime boyfriend. The fact that he and Finn were together longer than Carole and Burt even knew each other's names didn't seem to erase the look of shock-and-awe and ooh-taboo off some people's faces. Kurt had learned to deal with it.

What he wasn't sure how to deal with was the looks he had been getting lately. Ever since the day at the zoo, the same day Jacob uploaded all his footage to his hugely followed Youtube channel, being out in public meant getting strange, ominous, slightly fearful looks from anyone who knew about his pre-incident freak-out. After allowing Carole to drag him out for a third attempt to get his mind off things and cheer him up (that time, a trip to the ice cream parlor, bless her heart) he had warded her off and stayed in. This would be his first time out in three days, and though part of him would rather crawl under the covers and dissolve into his high thread count bed sheets, he knew he couldn't miss the memorial service for the McKinley students. He owed it to them to be there.

He entered his bedroom across the hall from Finn's, and went to his closet, using every bit of his energy to concentrate solely on clothes. Designers, cuts, tops, bottoms, shoes, accessories-he needed to look perfect. He needed to dress as though Tim Gunn would be there to give him feedback. As though his fashion sensibilities today would pass by Heidi Klum and be the deciding factor in whether or not he was _Project Runway_ material.

He sifted through his seasonally organized walk-in closet, a specially sized add-on that Burt had custom built for him, because he had a tough year with Karofsky and because his clothes were crowding the hallway on wheeled dressing rods. Everything fit now, and when it didn't he cycled it out to Good Will. Fashion moved. It didn't sit in the back of a closet.

He went through his darks as he reconsidered his grey bottoms. All black might be more appropriate. He lost five friends and a counselor that he was familiar with. All black was probably pretty fucking fitting.

"Hey."

Kurt didn't turn at the sound of Finn's voice. He was too busy rooting through his black pants and grabbing an assortment to carry with him to the bed. He laid them out and his eyes went over and over each of them. He grabbed a pair of black skinny jeans and tossed them over his shoulder onto the floor. He wasn't wearing denim to a memorial service. He still had other options. But maybe the pants weren't the problem. Maybe it was the ascot. This was a tie-event. He should be in a tie. He reached around his neck and began untying the perfectly arranged black silk at his throat. He turned deftly for the closet and murmured incoherently under his breath as he stopped untying to look down at his sweater. It was the sweater, he decided. The sweater was wrong. Finn and Burt were both in button-downs and blazers. What was he doing? He needed to wear a suit. Obviously. He had to take everything off. Everything was wrong. It was the whole thing.

His hands shook as he reached for the bottom hem of his sweater and abandoned it with one hand to return to the ascot. He had to take it off. He needed to change. They had to leave soon. Why had he dressed so stupidly? His hands were reaching around numbly trying to take everything off at once rendering his fingers useless and unable to remove anything.

Before he could get his brain to command both hands to focus on one area at a time, there was a weight at his back and Finn's arms were around him. His chest pressed into his back and he held him so tightly both of his arms were clamped at his sides and Kurt was forced to stand still. Finn's cheek was against his hair and as he pulled him even tighter, Kurt felt his chest rumble against him and heard a soft cry from the lips at his ear. Tears were an endless commodity, because once again they prickled at Kurt's eyes and he fell apart with Finn. Held so tightly he could barely breathe, he felt Finn's sobs vibrate through his clothes and they broke together. For a few minutes, that was all either of them needed.

Several ragged breaths later, Finn stepped back and Kurt turned around. He reached up and began thumbing away the tears on his face as he gasped a couple of times and regulated his breathing. Finn reached down and did the same for him. When they were pale but tear-free, Kurt retied his ascot and made his way downstairs. 

* * *

><p>The football field seemed like such a random, stupid, misfit of a place for the memorial. It was the stomping ground of the bully force that slushied Tina and Artie bi-or-tri-weekly. Sam and Mike were targeted less frequently but weren't safe from the occasional splatter of sticky slushie facials. Ms. Pillsbury was the dork of the faculty. It just felt wrong to be honoring their memory in a place that symbolized decidedly unfriendly moments for them.<p>

Kurt settled in the third row of white wooden folding chairs. They were ten to a row, split in half to create an aisle, and went back in seven lines. There were more people than there were seats, a surprising sight considering the memorialized group's lackluster amount of Facebook friends. The story of their death was exponentially more popular than they were. McKinley students had shown up in droves. People were having to stand around in the back, sitting in the grass, or pulling out their own fold-up chairs. Kurt was glad that Mercedes had the forethought to save chairs for him, Finn, and their parents behind her and Quinn. He and Finn sat in between their parents with Puck on Carole's other side. Her hand was around her son's best friend's fingers, but Puck sat perfectly still staring ahead.

At the front, large framed pictures of their friends were set up on easels on a short stage, wrapped with pleated black trimming. The frames with Tina, Mike, and Artie's pictures were set up on the left of the podium in the center of the stage, with Lauren, Ms. Pillsbury, and Sam's on the right. Kurt was having a hard time looking up there, because every time he caught a glimpse of his friends' faces another brick dropped in the pit of his stomach and weighed him down.

Mr. Figgins was behind the podium giving condolences on behalf of the school before introducing Mr. Schuester who was sitting in a black folding chair on stage beside Rachel. There was an empty chair on her other side. Kurt couldn't think of who it could be for or wonder at why Rachel was up there, because he caught sight of Tina's mother sobbing and had to concentrate on breathing. He dropped his head to Burt's shoulder and noticed Finn already slumped against his mom out of the corner of his eye. It made large Finn seem very small and made Kurt feel much younger.

Mr. Schuester was at the podium, and as his voice traveled through the microphone and rose over the field Kurt felt a chill run down his spine as though a million staring eyes were all pointed at him. He looked to the empty bleachers uneasily expecting to see a crowd of silent onlookers. The only people in the stadium were on the field with their attention on the stage. Every hair on his body was on end, but he amounted it to the camera crew from the local news station making him uncomfortable and forced himself to look back at Schue.

"I had the privilege of knowing every one of the people pictured up here." Schuester said, and Kurt noticed Rachel ringing her hands together off to his side with her ankles crossed daintily in her seat. "The kids were in my Glee Club, and Emma Pillsbury was a dear friend of mine."

A special amount of torment squeezed down on Kurt's heart knowing what Schue must be feeling. His feelings for the guidance counselor weren't exactly under lock-and-key. His eyes flicked to Finn subconsciously, and holding his breath was all he could do to keep from falling apart all over again.

"Each of them were such talented, kindhearted people. Accepting where others were not. Resilient when others would push them down. Happy when it wasn't easy to be. This Friday the Glee Club was supposed to compete at Nationals for the second year in a row. Tina was excited about the punk rocker outfits she helped pick out. Artie was glued to his guitar as he memorized and re-memorized each chord to all three songs he was playing as well as singing. Lauren never touched an electric guitar in her life but spent the last three months learning the bridge to 'Love Song', because she wanted to demonstrate her 'stunning natural ability with anything cool'. Mike was going to carry us to a win with the skills of a professional dancer. Well trained, always eager, and exceptionally gifted. Sam was singing the opening duet with Rachel and was so intimidated by his partner's frequently voiced high standards that he quit twice and came back both times not because we didn't have an understudy, but because he wanted to be a part of something bigger than himself. To push himself to be greater."

Schuester paused and swallowed thickly. "Emma Pillsbury had an entire school to look after. Kids came into her office every day for help and advice, and she made sure-every single day-that she handed out a brochure or talked sense into or was just _there_ for every single one of them. Every day. Because the people we lost this week were special. They were committed. They cared. They worked hard. They loved with their whole hearts. And we loved them with ours. This week we lost them to a tragedy that the world will remember them for. But we…_we, here, at McKinley_ will remember them for their smiles. And their dedication. Their hearts. And their life. Today we say goodbye, but not to their memory. These were our friends and our family, and they'll live on in us forever."

He made a gesture toward Rachel, and she stood up and began moving the three chairs closer to the edge of the stage. At the end of their row on the field, Puck stood up and made his way silently to the front. Kurt saw him grab the guitar case leaning against the far left edge of the stage. He got his acoustic out and made his way up the short steps as Schuester went on.

"Today, while we pay our respects, a few of us would like to use something that everyone we lost held dear in their everyday life. Music."

He pulled the microphone loose of its stand and carried it over to the chairs, handing it to Rachel in the middle and sitting in the empty seat while Puck pulled his guitar strap around him. As he began to strum, Kurt instantly recognized it as Lissie's 'Everywhere I Go'. The song always put him in a melancholy mood and now, watching his friends perform it in this context, he felt like every molecule in his body was becoming slippery and light, putting him in a floating foggy state.

Rachel's voice was haunting as Figgins pulled the cover off the four foot memorial statue the school manufactured for the ceremony at the foot of the stage. It was a stone angel with its wings spread and its head bent over its hands, erected on a square platform with the names of the deceased engraved in gold on the black stone.

Rachel was crying in her seat, but her sobs didn't come through in her voice; strong, powerful and moving as ever. Puck was stony faced and blurry eyed as he strummed the guitar next to her, and Schuester sang backup, voice flowing with Rachel's at all the right moments. His cheeks were tear streaked as he sang, and at some point during the performance Rachel had reached over and clasped his hand tightly in hers.

Rachel's voice dropped as she sang, "Tell me why I feel so low." But abruptly rose and swelled with emotion, "_Danger_ will follow me now everywhere I go. Angels will call on me and take me to my home. Well, these tired eyes just want to remain closed. I don't see clearly. Can't feel nothing, no. Can you hear me?"

As though he sang the lyrics himself, the wind brushed coolly against Kurt's ear with a startling hum, a whisper through the wind. He flinched and jerked upright, glancing over his shoulder and eyes catching on Santana and Brittany sitting a couple rows back on the opposite side. The wind rolled over him again, and this time it felt icy cold. Santana looked over and their eyes only met a second before she blinked heavily and faced forward. There was an odd hesitation in him as he made himself turn around as well. He spread his fingers on his lap, feeling the light breeze, but it was back to feeling like the comforting cross between warm and light that came with springtime. The cold was brief and fleeting, but he felt it in his heart long after it disappeared. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Kurt eyed his reflection for a while after he finished his nightly skincare ritual. He looked like himself, but there was such a sharp foreign emptiness in his eyes that he might have been staring at a stranger. It was disconcerting and he found himself getting up and reaching for the duvet at the end of his bed. He unfolded it and shook it out over the mirror in front of his vanity to cover it up.

"Hey."

He turned and sighed at the sight of Finn leaning in his doorway in his plaid pajama pants and plain white t-shirt. He might not be able to stand looking at himself, but Finn was always a welcome sight. The problem was that every time he saw him he remembered being pinned with him between the jaws of a Great White, went back to being released and watching Finn get killed. It made him sick and then abruptly needy.

He crossed over to Finn and grabbed his hands, pulling his arms around him and digging his face into his chest. He breathed in his freshly showered boy smell and waited for his heart to slow and his mind to believe, once again, that Finn really was alive and okay. Finn only rubbed his back lightly and waited for him to regain his composure.

Kurt pulled back and tugged him inside, closing the bedroom door after him. "Will you sleep in here tonight? I want you close."

Finn yawned, large and sloppy, as he nodded. Kurt watched him cross over to his bed in silence, tug back the comforter and collapse down over the soft mattress as he had countless times before. Kurt stepped out of his slippers and climbed into the opposite side, waiting and feeling content as Finn automatically flopped his weight over and wrapped him up in his arms. His father was never the happiest man when he caught them sleeping in the same bed, but for tonight at least he was willing to bet they would get a pass. And if not, well his dad would get over it.

"Kurt?" Finn whispered close to his ear.

Kurt snuggled closer against him instinctively and murmured incoherently in response.

Finn hesitated but tightened his grip around him. "You can talk to me, you know… About what happened. I don't really understand, and I know you're scared. But you can talk to me. When you're ready."

Tears welled up in Kurt's eyes and he closed them tightly to keep them from slipping out. Mercedes had visited him a couple of times, but the only thing they ended up talking about was Tina which resulted in hours of crying and hugging. He and Finn had been out of school all week, so he hadn't been around the others. If the looks he received at the memorial were any indication, they weren't sure what to make of him and were content to keep their distance. Carole's only point of focus was trying to keep both boys under her care from completely unraveling; a loud cheerleader set on fighting their survivor's guilt. His father wasn't pushing him. When Kurt was out of his room the older Hummel made it a point to pat his shoulder or wrap his arm around him on the couch, but he hadn't outright asked what had happened. He was being cautious not to make things harder on him, and while Kurt appreciated it there was always a giant confusing, scary elephant in the room.

The truth was, Kurt didn't know what happened. He didn't understand how he saw what was going to happen before it did or why he was the one who saw it. But Finn apparently didn't think he was a freak, and he had to swallow hard against the lump in his throat.

"Okay, Finn." He whispered back, curling his fingers over the arm around his chest.

He tried to relax and settle his mind after flipping the lamp on his nightstand off, but there was an ugly tug at his mind, an implacable ball of stress resting in his gut and keeping him wakeful. His mind hadn't slipped into any distressing visions since that horrible afternoon at the zoo, but there was a heavy unnamable presence that had settled under his skin since that day. A wrongness.

Then again, he hadn't lost someone he loved since his mother died, and in one day he lost five friends. Grief expressed itself in awful ways, so he concentrated on leveling his breathing with Finn's slow, easy breaths and tried to slip off into the restless slumber that was becoming routine.

* * *

><p>"This is ridiculous," Santana's voice wafted out into the hallway outside the choir room and Kurt slowed.<p>

All day on his first day back people stared at him. Not in the 'hey, there's the gay kid' way. This was different. In more than a few people, not just nervous freshmen, he detected a trace of fearfulness in their gaze. He was worse than 'that gay kid' now. He was 'that freak who can see the future' or, to non-believers, 'that freak who _somehow_ knew about or caused the accident'. So he was a sideshow or a murderer. He wondered what he did in his past life to be _so_ lucky in this one.

"No one cares about Glee anymore. No one cares about any of this. It's a total waste of time." Santana's voice lost the heat it initially had and just sounded defeated.

Kurt took a deep breath and stepped inside. He ate lunch with Finn and Mercedes outside and sat with them in the classes they shared. Other than that, he kept to himself and managed to avoid speaking with the rest of the Glee Club. Now he would have to go into the lion's den though, and he braced himself for the less than enthusiastic way he might be received.

So he was completely unprepared for what he got. He was hardly two steps into the classroom when Rachel flew out of her pink plastic chair and ran at him. Her brunette hair flew behind her, and he had time for his eyebrows to fly up before her arms were around his neck and she was hugging him tightly. He stiffened in her embrace but slowly relaxed and wrapped his arms around her back. She pulled back to stare up at him.

"I've been looking for you all day!" She exclaimed. "I saw Finn, and he said you were back too. I've been wanting to visit for days, but my dads said you probably needed space. Maybe you still do, but I've been wanting to talk to you so badly and I have to just say it. I love you, Kurt. Thank you so much for what you did." The ardent sincerity in her words caught him off guard and if her hands weren't still on his shoulders he might have backpedaled. "You saved my life that day. You saved a lot of our lives. I don't know how or why, but I do know that I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. Thank you, thank you, _thank you_, Kurt. Also, my dads are taking me to see _Guys and Dolls_ in June, and they bought an extra ticket in case you wanted to join us. I really hope you will."

"I…" He sighed, closing his eyes to discretely roll them. "Jeez, Rachel." He couldn't muster enough energy to be properly frustrated with her mile-a-minute thought process. He wasn't sure how he felt about her thanking him either. If he saved her life, it only brought a brighter spotlight on the lives he was unable to save.

Someone placed a hand over each of his ears from behind, holding him still as they leaned down to kiss the top of his head. Normally he would have fussed about messing up his hair, but it was good to feel Finn so close to him. Even better when he grabbed his hand as he stepped forward and tugged him away from Rachel and her crazy eyes.

"Almost home." Finn said quietly enough to keep it between them. Kurt nodded.

After Glee practice they were free again, to go home and mope or eat or both. He thanked Gaga that there was only a couple of weeks left in school at all. Soon they would be done here forever, and he could take the summer to regroup and get his head on straight before he needed to rejoin the living full time.

Quinn's eyes were red rimmed and she was releasing a deep unsteady breath in the back row where Brittany was holding her hand and rubbing her back soothingly. Thoughts of her ex-boyfriend, Sam, crossing her mind or thinking about Lauren who became an unlikely friend to her in the last few weeks. Kurt was overwhelmed by a powerful wave of guilt. He shouldn't feel responsible, he tried to remind himself. It wasn't like he caused the accident. But his mind was having a lot of trouble accepting that, especially with all the looks he received throughout the day.

"Look, guys," Mr. Schuester stepped away from the piano and reasserted command of their attention as Kurt settled in a chair between Finn and Mercedes in the bottom row, and Rachel hopped into the seat beside Puck in the middle of the risers. "I know how hard this has been on everyone. I'm feeling it too. But there are still a couple weeks of school left. We may have had to pull out of Nationals, but that doesn't mean that we can just quit altogether."

"Why not?" Santana snapped again. "Everything about Glee is just a reminder of Sam and Mike and everyone else who will never sing or dance or do anything again."

"Yeah, Mr. Schue, you understand better than any of the faculty." Quinn spoke up softly from the back. "It's the end of the year. We're hurting. What's the point?"

Kurt didn't say anything. He agreed.

Schuester hesitated and sighed heavily. "The point is we had some really good times here. I don't want any of you to look back one day and only remember this week and the aquarium and how badly our hearts hurt. I want you to remember the laughs too and the long practice sessions." He waved at his most uncoordinated pupil. "Finn stepping on your foot during rehearsals, Rachel storming out every other day, the diva offs, and group hugs, and how every time you got slushied someone from this group helped you clean off in the bathroom."

Kurt thought he was beginning to understand. Mr. Schuester was the driving force behind Glee. If they didn't remember the good stuff, not only would Glee be a bad memory for them but he would feel responsible for all the heartache Glee caused.

"What did you have in mind?" Kurt asked, because he wasn't there when they started discussing this week's assignment.

Mr. Schuester glanced at him and there was hesitation in his eyes. Kurt would have forgiven him if he chose to ignore him altogether and never spoke to him again. He didn't understand his part in what happened himself and couldn't expect someone who lost as much as Schuester to overlook his own confusion. But the teacher tucked his hands in the pockets of his slacks and answered.

"I think we should do a final group number. Something to express what we're feeling and unite us one last time before you all graduate and go your separate ways." He looked at them all meaningfully, and Kurt realized they would be focusing a lot more on that fact if they weren't currently dealing with a tragedy. Realistically, he probably wouldn't see most of them very much anymore. They would be friends on Facebook maybe, if they hadn't already deleted him from their friends list, but after high school they would go to separate colleges and all end up in different places.

He would still have Finn. He would always have Finn whether or not they stayed together forever or not. He reached over and grabbed his hand, because the thought of _not_ being with Finn scared him. He was his first love and his big, dopey grinned rock. But if they did break up down the line, their parents would still be married. They would always be tethered together by the familial bond if nothing else. Mercedes was his lady love. She hadn't batted a lash at him since the accident, was the first one to rush over and hug him and knew exactly how to tease, push, and calm him. He wouldn't give her up for anything. He was confident Rachel would be a permanent tiny-Barbra in his life. Their dreams were huge and similar, they were both headed to New York, and they loved each other even when they hated each other.

Everyone else, though… He might send Mr. Schuester a card at Christmas or see Puck on occasion because he was Finn's best friend, but the others would probably drift from his life entirely within a few months. It was kind of sad and final, but life stood still for no one, a lesson he learned better than he thought anyone his age should.

"I think that's a good idea." He told Mr. Schuester, because this was their last hoorah. No matter what they were going through, they went through the best and worst of high school together. They should say goodbye, and like every pivotal moment they shared, it was only appropriate they do it through music.

Schuester nodded. "Let's meet in the auditorium tomorrow after school and anyone who wants to sing, express what they're going through, can perform. We'll talk about what song for all of us to do afterward."

Kurt tried to keep his face neutral as Mercedes leaned her head on his shoulder. Perform a song to express what he was feeling? That could be a challenge. He didn't think 'Tortures of the Damned' was in his range.

* * *

><p>Being home was a relief. There were only nine school days left not counting the weekend, but he honestly didn't know if he had it in him to get up and go another nine rounds against those looks. It was one thing to get the 'queer eye' from homophobes at school. It was quite another to be looked at like he was responsible for killing his friends.<p>

Finn sensed his uneasiness, because he followed him upstairs silently and tugged him into his room instead of letting him drop his stuff off in his own. Kurt began to protest, but he cut him off with a kiss and set his bag down on the floor next to the door as he closed it after them. When Kurt's breath was successfully taken away enough to keep him from griping, Finn stepped back and went over to his desk, pushing his laptop open and starting it up. Kurt wasn't sure if now was the time to update his Facebook status but remembered that Finn managed to run over his ipod last week and depended on his computer for music now.

As it booted up, Finn came back to him and kissed him again, tugging his sweater off his shoulders and carefully folding it over once vertically and laying it across the back of his desk chair. Taking care with Kurt's clothes was one of his first lessons in dating him. Wrinkling his expensive items was a major turnoff. What Kurt didn't tell Finn was that he was so stricken with grief and stress that he could have ripped his clothes off like the Incredible Hulk and he wouldn't have minded. He just wanted Finn's hands on him so he could forget everything else for a little while. Just him and Finn. There was something supremely safe and comforting in being alone with someone who loved him completely, who cared enough to hold his hand between every class even though it meant he would be late to his own, someone who never looked at him like he was a freak even though he felt like the biggest one on the planet.

"I honestly love you." Kurt whispered against his cheek as Finn's lips moved to his neck. He chuckled and his breath felt good against his throat, no doubt remembering the time Kurt sang the Olivia Newton-John song of the same title to him during their ballad assignment in Glee. It was when things first started to change between them, so the song would always be important to their relationship.

"Good." Was Finn's only reply as he pushed Kurt back and fell on top of him over the bed. 

* * *

><p>"Brittany, let's go home." Santana grabbed the metal railing and looked down from the rafters in the auditorium where she was sitting and swinging her legs over the side. She decided to sing Annie Lennox's 'Dark Road' tomorrow, and Brittany had asked Mr. Schuester if she could dance to it instead of picking her own song. They spent the last two hours singing it on repeat while Brittany came up with choreography for it.<p>

Santana was blown away once again by Brittany's physical ability. She had a grace to her that made her heart clench. When she thought about what happened at the zoo it felt like she was shutting off, going robotic and turning off all the parts of her that could hurt her. She came close not only to losing her own life but to losing Brittany if the blonde had decided to go down without her. The whole Glee Club was on its way down to the aquariums when Kurt freaked out. If it wasn't for him they would all be dead.

She heard Rachel smothering him with gratitude at Glee practice earlier but pretended not to. She didn't know what to make of Kurt's outburst. Yeah, it was amazingly timed and scarily accurate, but what the fuck _was_ it? People didn't see the future. That's not how the world worked, and she doubted a bunch of high schoolers in mediocre Lima were worth some higher power stepping in to protect them.

"I don't want to leave." Brittany's voice was flat and airy from the stage nearly thirty feet below Santana, but she stopped dancing.

"Why not?" Santana dropped her forehead against the cold rail.

Brittany shrugged. "Because this is where all of us were together the most. Mike and I practiced all the time, and Artie used to give me rides in his chair while we waited for Finn to learn the steps after I totally nailed it already."

Santana frowned sadly. She would rather be at home with either alcohol or cookie dough, whichever she could get her hands on, but she didn't protest. She waved at the blonde.

"Get up here."

Brittany's cheeks were flushed from dancing, but she smiled up at her. 

* * *

><p>Finn's shirt was somewhere on the floor, and Kurt's fingers were tracing the muscles in his back. His eyes were closed, but he knew Finn by heart. Every curve made his spine tingle, and every dip was foreseen by his fingertips as they ran over the familiar terrain. He knew his body better than he knew his own now, and the way Finn pressed against him suggested his body was pretty well known in return. He moaned against his mouth and turned his head to break the kiss and keep from losing it already. It felt too good to be lost in Finn's caresses. Their parents weren't home, and he wanted to draw it out as long as he could.<p>

The headache that started hours earlier was fading as the tension in his body dissipated. If he could stay there indefinitely, touching and being touched, he thought he could make it through the coming months unbroken. If only he could freeze that moment and let Finn keep him forever.

His eyelashes fluttered as he tried to keep his eyes open and not give himself over completely yet. He rolled his head to the side as Finn nudged at him for better access and began kissing his throat and dragging his bottom lip over his pulse. The curtains at the open window batted forward in the wind, the breeze winding through loose sheets of paper on Finn's desk. The black tie Finn wore to the memorial was still knotted loosely and hooked over one corner of his desk chair. It swayed in the wind.

Finn bucked against Kurt, and his eyes closed momentarily as his body required his full attention. Finn tugged on the bottom of his shirt, untucking it from his waistband as his mouth refocused to his jaw and dropped behind his ear. A stronger gust blew in through the window and knocked over the G.I. Joe standing on the edge of Finn's desk with both its arms raised in a stupid pose Finn set it in. The action figure toppled over the edge and slipped into the loose loop of Finn's black tie, plastic torso catching on the material and forcing it to hang suspended. Kurt's eyes narrowed at the oddity, and the wind blew in again, this time blowing the whole stack of papers over the keyboard of Finn's laptop. Kurt's eyes flicked up to the screen following the paper. It was on the screensaver, a slideshow of pictures from his digital camera. The screen was panning in on a picture of Santana and Brittany at Sectionals, their arms around each other's necks as they grinned at the camera on stage.

An anxious, knowing feeling crept through his bones and made him stiffen like he always felt when he was fixing to get the results back for a test he knew he didn't study well enough for. He shivered.

"Santana…"

Finn's lips stalled against his neck and he lifted himself on his forearms, looking down at Kurt quizzically. "Uh…what?" Kurt didn't look back at him, still staring over at the picture stuck on the screen. "Oh are we…? Kinda weird with people we know, but…okay." Finn turned Kurt's face and kissed his lips again, murmuring against his mouth. "Maybe you should put your Cheerios uniform on, Brittany."

"What?" Kurt blinked against Finn's kiss, realizing that Finn thought he wanted to role-play. He wrinkled his nose. "Ew. No." He pulled away from Finn's kiss and attempted to push him off so he could get up. The feeling of unease was growing in him. "Something's wrong."

Finn rolled onto his back, grumbling as Kurt got to his feet. "You don't really have to put on a skirt…"

Kurt went to his bag against the door and knelt down to fish his phone out of it. "Sorry, sweetie." He tossed over his shoulder and clutched his phone, scrolling immediately through the contacts list. "Get your shirt on." 

* * *

><p>Brittany did a single pirouette across from Santana on the beam above the rafters. "It's so high up here. Like a bird."<p>

Santana smiled softly and reached her hand out for Brittany to take. She came closer and slipped her fingers around hers, allowing Santana to tug her down to sit beside her. They peered through the many rows of rope hanging up different prop pieces for the drama club's last show and down at the stage where their Glee Club put on multiple group performances.

Brittany's eyes filled with tears, and Santana's chest tightened. Artie was the first boyfriend Brittany ever had who truly cared for her and wasn't just fixated on her body. Now he was gone, and Santana knew that no matter how many times they were lucky enough to remember the good times with their friends, _it_ would always be there at the back of their mind. Losing them. How they lost them. Grief grew bearable, but it never went away.

Brittany sniffled, and Santana wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Down in her backpack in one of the front row seats of the auditorium, her cell phone vibrated. 

* * *

><p>"She's not answering." Kurt listened to her cell ring itself out and held up a finger to silence Finn's question as it beeped for him to leave a message. "Santana, it's Kurt. It's really important that you call me back. Are you with Brittany?" He hesitated before adding. "…I have a really bad feeling."<p>

As he hung up he realized how ambiguous and weird that sounded, but he couldn't help it. His arms and legs felt like they were pumped full of ten gallons of caffeine. He turned to Finn sharply.

"Santana lives in Lima Heights right?"

Finn sat on the side of the bed and stared back at him confused. 

* * *

><p>"You ready to go?" Santana squeezed Brittany closer to herself and rubbed her arm.<p>

Brittany nodded with a small smile and they got to their feet slowly, stretching out of their slouch. Brittany turned with another pirouette but tripped on a loose piece of wood in the rafters and banged backward into the railing. Santana gasped and was fixing to laugh after the scare, but the railing made a reverberating creak and gave under Brittany's weight. It broke and clattered down toward the stage, and Brittany slipped backward reaching up wildly and grabbing one of the hanging ropes. Her hands wrapped around it and it groaned and slid down a little as it unwound ever so slightly from its metal spool.

"Santana!" She shrieked fearfully.

"Hang on!" Santana screamed at her as she rushed to the part of the railing still standing and gripped it. She leaned over as far as she could, extending her arm out for Brittany but the blonde was too far out and a couple feet too far down. Santana dropped to her stomach over the rafters and locked her shoulder against the railing, reaching down for Brittany desperately. She was too far out of reach. "You have to climb up!"

"I can't!" Brittany protested and hissed through her teeth as she lost some of her grip and her palms burned across the rope as she slid farther down. There was only a couple of feet of the shorter rope left and she would have a twenty-six foot drop to the hard stage below if she let go.

Santana scrambled to her feet, looking out over the auditorium from the dark rafters. "Help!" She screamed. The Glee Club and probably all of the rest of the after school clubs would be long gone, but there might have been a janitor close by or Principal Figgins. "Somebody help!"

"Santana!" Brittany's voice rose with heightened fear as she slipped down a few more inches.

Santana's head spun a million miles an hour as she tried to figure out what to do. Brittany could break something, including her neck if she fell from this height. Her mind went blank at the thought. She was not going to lose Brittany. After all the heartache of the last week she would _not_ lose Brittany.

Not pausing to think, she leaned over the side of the rafters, shoes scraping over the edge of the wood, and reached for the nearest rope. She had to climb down to reach her. This rope went almost all the way down to the stage. If she could pull her over to it, they could just climb down, a much easier task than getting up one of the ropes.

"I'm coming, Brittany, hold on." 

* * *

><p>Kurt raced through the street in his Navigator and was halfway to Lima Heights when Finn started messing with the radio nervously. It was currently playing Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way'. Free spirited and empowered was definitely not the mood he was in anyway, so he didn't complain. Besides, Finn was growing obviously uncomfortable by Kurt's strange insistence that something was wrong without explaining what or how he knew. He changed it to an older station and Journey's 'Don't Stop Believin' was on the chorus. Finn shifted in his seat and changed it again. 'One Of Us' came through the Christian station.<p>

Finn flipped the radio off and sat back against his seat staring out the window. A heavy sensation pushed against Kurt, the disconcerting feeling that he was missing something. Then it hit him. In the middle of the road with two cars behind him, he gave the steering wheel a hard left jerk and forced the Navigator into a sharp, squealing U-turn. Finn jumped and grabbed at his seatbelt instinctively.

The cars behind them honked angrily, and Finn looked around, gripping the door and gaping.

"Kurt, what the hell?"

Kurt's heart was hammering in his chest. "They're not at home."

"What?"

"'Born This Way', 'Don't Stop Believin', Joan Osbourne-we performed all of them at the school auditorium." He spoke rapidly as though it should all make sense to Finn. "It's a sign. They never left the school."

Finn's jaw dropped. "Dude, you need to pull over. You are freaking me out right now."

Kurt ignored him and pressed harder on the gas. "It's happening again, Finn."

"It…" Finn repeated and slow realization dawned on him. "Oh shit."

"Yeah." Kurt agreed and sped past the school zone sign telling him to slow down. 

* * *

><p>Santana took a deep steadying breath and forced herself to rock. She climbed down to Brittany's level but was too far off. She would have to swing closer to her for Brittany to be able to reach the rope she was on.<p>

"Okay, Brit," she coached, forcing her voice to stay level so she wouldn't excite Brittany even more. "When I get close enough you reach out and grab the rope, okay? Then we'll climb down. It'll be easy. Coach Sylvester didn't make us work out for nothing when we were on the Cheerios, right?"

Brittany's face was pale and she was clinging to her rope so hard her knuckles were bright white, but she answered quietly. "Okay."

"Okay." Santana said, encouraged. "I'm coming. Get ready."

She rocked herself a little harder and she began to swing over the stage in a wide arc. Just a little more and she would be…right…_there_. Brittany let go of her rope and reached for Santana's the second she was within reach. Her fist wrapped around it above Santana's own hands, and she swung back out with Santana as the rope pulled back. The spool above their heads gave a loud groan and instantly bucked under their weight, unwinding the rope and shooting it down.

They screamed, and Santana reached up with both hands for another rope, Brittany doing the same. She gripped onto a side rope hanging from another spool and Brittany grabbed the other end hanging down from the same one. For a split second everything stopped, and then as Brittany's weight forced the rope to slide down some on her side, Santana was lifted up. Her hand slipped, and she twisted in midair trying to grab at it, getting her head caught in the loose knot of another rope. As she released her rope entirely, the loop tightened around her throat and the knot closed. She reached up manically for the rope cutting off her air and kicked out in desperation.

"Santana!" Brittany shouted in a panic from the other rope she managed to grab onto on her way down.

Santana kicked and clawed at the rope around her throat, but as the heavy prop attached to the other end of the rope on the spool fell from the rafters above, its weight dragged its side down and yanked Santana's side up in a rush. The rope tightened with crushing pressure around her windpipe, and she swung from the top of the metal rig loosely.

Brittany released a broken sob of shock before the rope she clung to began rapidly slipping through the spool. She let go and fell through the air screaming, slamming her head hard against the stage and going instantly silent. 

* * *

><p>Kurt rushed through the side door to the auditorium with Finn behind him and ran partway down the stairs toward the stage before he spotted Brittany. At first he was flooded with relief, because it looked like she was laying on the stage. But his steps quickly slowed as his mind caught up to what he was seeing.<p>

"Oh my God…"

Finn moved past him, still hurried and oblivious. "I see her! Brittany, you o-," Finn choked on his question as he hopped onto the stage and crossed over to her still figure. "Oh Jesus… Jesus… Kurt… Kurt, call 911!"

But Kurt's eyes had already caught on a strange looming figure over the stage, and as he stared up at Santana's hanged, limp body he was overwhelmed with nauseating dread. It was over. They were too late. 


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Quick update. Thank or blame the thunderstorm. Favorite weather, favorite month, good day. : )

**Chapter Four**

Mr. Schuester set out drinks and cookies on the coffee table in his living room for everyone. Finn was the only one leaning forward and grabbing anything. Kurt sat stiffly on the edge of the little bit of room next to him on the couch. Mercedes and Quinn were on Finn's other side, and Rachel was planted primly in the armchair across from them. Puck was in front of the coffee table on the floor leaning his head back on Rachel's crossed knees, and surprisingly, she permitted it. Tragedy brought people together in mysterious ways. Jacob Ben Israel was sitting with plenty of space in between them, next to Puck on the floor. Finn was eyeing him strangely as he bit into another chocolate chip cookie and reached for the glass of milk in front of Mercedes after draining his own.

Mr. Schuester came back into the room from the kitchen and handed Rachel a water bottle, because milk was on the vegan no-no list. She accepted graciously, and Mr. Schue stayed standing, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at everyone like he wasn't sure where to start.

It was Kurt that got the ball rolling in getting everyone to meet at their teacher's apartment, though, and he rose to his feet. After what he and Finn walked in on yesterday, news traveled fast and not a single member of Glee Club showed up to school the next day. It was mid-afternoon now, and Kurt was running on two hours of sleep. He and Finn had to go to the police station and go over and over what they saw when they got there and why they were there in the first place. Kurt told the truth but was looked at like he was crazy. When they were finally allowed to go home, he stayed up all night researching, and after finding what he did he got Finn to help him organize a group meeting.

"What is Pasty Face doing here?" Puck jerked his thumb at Jacob. "He's an alternate. He was never really a part of the club. Plus, he's fucking annoying."

"I haven't even said anything yet." Jacob mumbled in his scratchy whine of a voice.

"See?" Puck jerked his thumb out again.

Jacob's shoulders slumped but he went silent again against the threat of poking Puck's wrath.

"I asked him to come." Kurt explained.

"Why?" Quinn shook her head and closed her eyes. She looked perhaps the worst out of all of them. Kurt knew how far back her and the other former Cheerios went, and his heart swelled for her. The hurt he was going through must be mirrored in her times a hundred.

Kurt was about to explain when a knock at the door interrupted. Mr. Schuester's brow furrowed in confusion since they were all already here, plus Jacob, but he excused himself and went to the door.

"Uh, can I help you?" His confused voice traveled back to them.

"Yeah, we're here for our money." Azimio's deep voice answered.

"Do you got it or what, cause we're kind of in a hurry." Karofsky added.

"What the hell?" Finn set Mercedes' glass of milk down after taking a big gulp and got to his feet. The new arrivals walked behind Schue back to the living room, a particularly puzzled look on their teacher's face, and Finn stepped around the coffee table, 6'3" and mad. "What the hell are you doing here?" He barked at them. "Two of our friends just died. This is private. If you're here to start shit, I swear to God-"

"Finn! Finn." Kurt rounded the coffee table hurriedly and put a hand on his chest, stepping between him and the two unimpressed jocks. "I asked them to come."

"What? _Why?_" It was Mercedes' turn to be baffled, and he didn't blame her.

"Because what I have to say is relevant to all of us. And some people who I'm not sure how to get in touch with." He thought of the others he saw get off the bridge before it collapsed and he tried hard to remember something that would tell him who they were until he remembered the articles in the newspapers. He googled the Sysco County Zoo Tragedy and quickly found a list of survivors, people who were interviewed after getting off the bridge in time. Some of them were from out of state, so he would have to think quickly about the best way to get in touch with them. He had no idea how to start the conversation that he needed to have with them.

"Where's our money, Hummel?" Karofsky glared at him.

Rachel sat forward bewildered. "I'm sorry, what money?"

Azimio sauntered over to the coffee table and grabbed a handful of cookies, deepening Finn's scowl. "Hummel called and said Glee Club was giving out a raffle, and me and Dave won fifty bucks."

Mr. Schuester raised an eyebrow, and Quinn's face was screwed up with confusion before turning to disgust. She looked away from them and laid her head on Mercedes' shoulder weakly.

"Yes, I made that up." Kurt informed them matter-of-factly. Azimio threw his arms up. "It was the only way I could think to get you to come."

Karofsky glowered. "Look, I'm not into crashing wakes even to ruin it for _you_. I don't know why you'd want us here anyway."

Kurt sighed in disdain. "Trust me. It's not to reminisce about all the fun times

the three of us have shared over the years. Dumpster dives and slushies," he feigned a swoon. "How I'll miss thee." Karofsky frowned. "Can you please just sit down? I'll explain."

Azimio had already plopped down in front of Quinn to have better access to the cookie tray. He drank out of Mercedes' half-drained glass of milk. Finn wrinkled his nose. Apparently, drinking after Mercedes was okay, but seeing Azimio drink after him was a step toward disgusting.

Mr. Schuester dragged a couple of chairs from his dining table over and Karofsky sat in one, dragging it a little farther from Jacob than Schuester set it. He scowled at the obnoxious school gossip, and Jacob shrank away from him, freezing when he realized he was shrinking toward Puck and getting the stink eye from him too.

Mr. Schuester took the other seat so Finn lowered himself cross-legged to the floor and reached up to pull Kurt down with him, but he shook his head slightly and stayed standing to address the group.

"I know how hard today is on everybody." Kurt began. In fact, he didn't think he would ever get the image of Santana's swinging body out of his mind. Knowing how far back Quinn went with the girls, he just felt grateful that she did not have the same image in her head. "I know what everyone thinks happened. But Santana and Brittany didn't commit suicide."

Quinn straightened, lifting her head off Mercedes' shoulder. Rachel's back was so straight she was beginning to arch, and Puck shifted at her feet.

"Kurt…" Mr. Schuester started slowly. "They found handwritten lyrics to Annie Lennox's 'Dark Road' on the piano. It was left there as a note. I never should have pushed you guys to express yourselves through music and perform if you weren't ready. They killed themselves."

Kurt frowned. They took the assignment to an extremely dark and twisted place if that's what Mr. Schue thought happened. But that's not what happened. He knew it as sure as he knew anything.

"This isn't the first time something like this has happened." He disregarded their teacher's assumption about the events. It was certainly what the police thought too, but he knew better. He walked past the coffee table and stood in front of the fireplace, for a better view of the circle of people in the room. "A few years ago there was another high school in New York going on their senior class trip. One of the kids had a vision about the plane exploding and got himself and several others off. The plane exploded on takeoff."

"We already know you think you had a vision, Kurt." Mercedes said dryly, and he paused. That was the first trace of an opinion he had gotten from her on the subject. She didn't believe him if her tone was any indication.

Puck shifted uncomfortably on the floor, pressing his back against Rachel's chair and draping his arm around her legs. Again, she permitted it, and even pat his arm gently with one of her small hands. Finn didn't say anything, looking up at Kurt and squinting in concentration as he tried to follow his train of thought.

Kurt gave Mercedes a look and went on. "A couple of years later, another group of kids our age were on their senior trip. You probably remember this one from the news. The rollercoaster they boarded at the amusement park they went to broke and several students were killed."

Quinn's eyebrows knit together and she nodded down at her lap remembering. Mr. Schuester nodded as well.

"Before the ride started, one of the passengers freaked out." Kurt explained. "The girl and a few of her friends got off. She claimed to have had a vision of the rollercoaster coming apart before it did. Those visions saved those people's lives."

"Look, we get it." Puck said in annoyance. "You're a fucking genie wizard and we're all super indebted to you for keeping us from becoming shark bait. What does this have to do with Santana and Brittany? They killed themselves. Are you saying you had a vision or whatever about that too?"

"Kind of." Kurt answered, spurring the exchange of many looks within the group. "I didn't _see_ anything, but I knew it was going to happen. I got this really ominous feeling, and then I started seeing these signs. I didn't know what exactly was going to happen, but I did know it was coming for Santana and Brittany."

"It's true." Finn backed up. "He freaked out. That's how we were the ones to find them." He swallowed and looked at the floor. Kurt wanted to go to him. "He knew something was going to happen to them."

"Wait." Quinn held up a perfectly manicured hand that was squeezing a tissue. "What do you mean _'it' _was coming for them?"

Now for the hard part. Kurt looked around the group and had second thoughts, especially when his eyes roamed over Azimio and Karofsky. It was going to be incredibly difficult to _not_ sound like a psycho. But he had to try.

"Those weren't the only times something like that happened." Kurt gathered up his courage and went on. "But they all had one thing in common. The deaths didn't stop there. All of the survivors started dying in mysterious ways soon following the tragedies."

He waited for a reaction, but no one seemed to know what to make of his news.

"So…'it'…is," Quinn's eyes rolled to the side. "…the Grim Reaper…?"

Kurt ignored her condescension, because it did sound ridiculous. Interest piqued, Jacob whipped out his video camera and barely pointed it up at Kurt before Puck swiped it out of his hands and tossed it until it rolled to the foot of the fireplace. Jacob frowned but wisely made no move for it.

"I don't know what it is," Kurt replied, "but the people who survived those events all died in the order that they would have died if someone in their group hadn't had a vision and prevented their death in the first place. That's how I know for sure that it's happening to us. Santana and Brittany were the first to die in my vision down in the aquariums. It… Death… Whatever, it's circling back for us."

Azimio burst into laughter on the floor as he stuffed his mouth with another cookie and spoke through bits of crumbs, "You're even crazier than I thought, fairy boy."

Finn and Puck kicked a leg out at the same time, ramming the table and making it slide into Azimio's chest with a thud. He shoved it back in place and glared at them in turn. Mr. Schuester eyed the boys wearily but ignored them.

"Kurt, you're under a lot of stress. All of us are." Mr. Schuester rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. "No one here is going to hold it against you if you want to take a breath and step back."

"Yeah, whatever, but you still owe us fifty bucks." Azimio made a face at Finn when he leaned forward and swiped the last cookie before he could take it. Azimio leaned back and scowled until his back brushed Quinn's legs and she smacked the back of his head until he moved.

"I'm not crazy. I know how this sounds, but it's true."

Mercedes sat back against the couch and shook her head. "What are you even talking about? Kurt, you of all people-you don't even believe in God."

He hesitated at her lack of faith in him but figured everyone had their limits. "I've never had proof of a higher power before. Whatever this is it isn't God. It's violent and hateful. The people dying aren't going peacefully in their sleep."

Some of the morgue photos he found on the internet scarred him for life. There was one guy whose death involved a barbed wire fence that he would never forget no matter how many psychologists and hypnotherapists he went to.

Mercedes crossed her arms, a sure sign that she wasn't backing down at all. "What then? The devil?"

Kurt had tried to form a solid theory for hours, but there was no way for him to be sure of anything. "I don't know. Maybe something even worse."

"Worse than the devil?" Mercedes raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. "You really don't know anything about church, do you?"

Kurt crossed his own arms now and frowned deeply at her lack of support. "Look, what I'm saying is, don't you have to accept the devil into your life-like let evil in or ask for it or act on evil or something for the devil to affect your life?" At least that's what he gathered from movies. "The righteous versus the wicked, right? Willpower and choices determine who's good and who gets the trapdoor pulled open under them at Heaven's gate? None of us chose anything or did anything. There was an accident and _something_ decided that we have to die. The _visions_. Maybe the _visions_ are God. Maybe that's why we have a chance at all, because our deaths _weren't_ meant to be and we're being played with. By something that got the trapdoor."

"Hold up!" Mercedes raised a hand incredulously. "The vision is from God? So now you're a prophet?"

"I believe you." Finn spoke up from the floor, and Kurt looked over to see him staring straight at him levelly. His shoulders relaxed with relief, because being rejected or dismissed by Finn would have undone him.

"Of course you do, White Boy, you're a fool." Mercedes said unapologetically.

"Hey, do you have a better answer for how Kurt saw what happened at the aquarium before it happened?" Finn snapped back testily. "He saved our lives. And I was there when he started feeling weird again before Santana and Brittany… I'm telling you, he _knew_ something was off." He waved at Kurt. "And if this has happened before, I think we owe it to him to listen. If it's true, then one of us is next! Right? That's how it works?"

"This is too much for me." Mercedes didn't even look at Finn, shaking her head and standing. "I'm sorry, but Santana and Brittany killed themselves. It is awful and tragic and ugly, but that's what happened. If you need to come up with some divine plan, so that you can feel more in control of everything that's happened, that's on you. But this is not for me."

She began maneuvering past Azimio to leave and Quinn stood after her, responding quietly. "I'm with Mercedes. This is crazy."

"Wait. Mercedes, please." Kurt called after her, but she didn't even turn.

"None of this makes any sense." Rachel looked down at Puck, appealing to someone who shared her religious beliefs.

Puck met her eyes and shook his head, jaw set angrily. "The only person who I go back farther with than Santana and Brittany is _Finn_, and that's why I'm not punching your face in, Hummel. But what you're saying is bullshit!" He got to his feet and stormed after Mercedes and Quinn for the door, spinning around and walking backward as he exclaimed in frustration. "We're alive! Yeah, I wish Lauren and Artie and all of our friends were here with us too, but they're not! And I'm not going to kill myself over it or let you put the survivor's guilt whammy on me! Fuck all of this. I'll see you assholes at graduation."

Mr. Schue's elbow was in his lap and his head was in his hand, and for once he didn't get after Puck for not restraining himself. Kurt guessed he was feeling the same way. He didn't know how to convince him, but he knew how important it was for Mr. Schuester, out of all of them, to take him seriously.

Because, according to his vision, he was next. 


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews and alerts! This is probably the last quickie update until next weekend. : )

**Chapter Five**

Kurt slumped back against the driver's seat of his Navigator in the parking lot outside Schue's apartment building. He and Finn left to get dinner but drove back and took turns looking up at his window with binoculars. Mr. Schuester wouldn't let them stay, but Kurt knew they couldn't just leave him there to fend for himself. He was really hoping that they were all right, and he and all of those people he looked up on the internet were just crazy. Being certifiable would be a lot better than the horrifyingly creepy alternative of them being stalked by Death.

Finn was laid out in the backseat, legs hanging off the side so he could fit. Kurt turned in his seat to look back at him, and Finn reached over grabbing his hand. He held it and stared up at the ceiling.

"Kinda weird stalking a teacher." He said.

"It's not stalking. It's protecting." It was also physically uncomfortable being cooped up in the car for so long. He passed the binoculars back to Finn and twisted back around, opening the door. "I'm going to stretch my legs."

He was a few paces from the car when he heard the back door open and close. He stopped and looked over at Finn jog up to him. He gave him a lopsided grin.

"I have more legs to stretch." He shrugged as he pulled the binoculars over his head and let them hang there, but Kurt knew Finn was worried about him. He was strong enough not to need a constant beam of support to hold him up, but Finn was the only one on his side. It wasn't something he took for granted, so he reached for his hand and started to walk around the apartment's radius amicably. 

* * *

><p>Will peered out of his blinds down at the sidewalk where Kurt and Finn were walking slowly hand-in-hand, bumping shoulders and talking. Finn leaned down a lot, but Will didn't think it was because it was necessary to hear whatever Kurt was telling him. Finn just liked being close to Kurt. He really wouldn't have pegged them as the Glee Club's steadiest couple when he first started gathering his group. Rachel had eyes on Finn back then, and Finn had eyes on Quinn and Rachel and every other girl he passed in the hallway regardless of skirt length or cup size. He was the school's quarterback, the All-American Jock, the affable and not too bright sports guy. He could have been prom king. And homecoming king. And dominated the senior superlatives that had to do with looks and popularity. But then Kurt happened.<p>

Will thought he caught on to Finn's confusion before even he did. It was the way he looked at Kurt sometimes like he was trying to work something out, like it was hard to understand and giving him a headache, but he couldn't stop trying to put the pieces together. Like most other things, it took a little while, but Finn got it. And when he did he was surprisingly open about it. He and Kurt just walked into class holding hands one day, and that was that. Rachel was appalled and Puck didn't speak to him for a couple of months, which might have derailed any other friendship but didn't do any lasting damage to their's. Puck ended up apologizing to him out of the blue one day during rehearsals, Finn had smiled, and Puck had looked Kurt straight in the eyes and shook his hand.

After that, anyone who slushied Kurt got a punch to the gut or a knee to the groin from Puck. It was the cause of the bulk of his suspensions. Because Finn was 'Puck's boy', and if Finn liked guys, then Puck was Team Gay. Will kind of admired the Mohawk-ed delinquent. He and Finn didn't always make the best choices or catch onto things as quickly as the others, but once they got themselves sorted they had a way of making up for their mistakes with loyalty and a whole lot of heart.

He was glad Kurt had Finn and Finn had Puck, because soon the kids would be graduating soon. He wouldn't have as big a part in their lives anymore. For some, he knew, he wouldn't be a part of their lives at all. Kurt was going through something. Some mental breakdown after what happened at the zoo. Will couldn't wrap his mind around what actually did happened. All he knew was that the things Kurt was saying were impossible, and he would need somebody to be there for him. He was confident Finn would be that person, and he would be able to lean on Puck once he calmed down.

Others…well, others would probably keep him around a little longer. He sighed into the phone, and Rachel abruptly stopped her non-stop babbling over what happened at his apartment.

"Mr. Schue." She said after a moment. She grew tentative, a trait she rarely showed, and one she didn't show at all in the last half hour she talked his ear off nervously crying on-and-off about everything going on. Will wanted to help her, he did, but he had no idea how to tell his students to grieve when every thought of Emma tore him up and nearly broke him. "What if Kurt's right?"

"He's not." Will didn't hesitate, because he was sure.

"Okay." Another pause. "But what if he is?"

"Rachel…"

Her tentativeness switched to the even, superior tone he was much more accustomed to hearing. "Yes, it sounds crazy. And yes, I don't believe it. But part of me kind of does. Because Kurt knew what was going to happen at the zoo. He knew. And it wasn't women's or gay intuition. He knew _exactly_ what was going to happen. And Finn says he knew Santana and Brittany were going to do what they did. Finn wouldn't lie, and Kurt believes it. He believes it enough to have called Karofsky of all people and manipulate him into coming to your apartment. I'm telling you I agree. You're right. He's clearly letting stress and grief play tricks with his mind. Okay." She said to try to quell any adverse reaction he might be having at her speech, but then recanted everything she just said. "But I think he could be right, and you might be next. Maybe you could come stay at my house. My dads wouldn't mind. They like you. They know how much you've helped me with my singing. You could sleep in the guest room. It's really nice. Daddy hired a decorator for it after Dad's mom stayed with us for Hanukkah and said it was hideously furnished."

Will huffed through his nose, but a small smile lifted his lips. He was tired and touched and maybe a little weirded out by the invitation. "Rachel, is that the real reason you've kept me on the phone for nearly an hour? You think a demon spirit of death is hunting me?"

A long very telling pause followed until finally she blurted. "Please just come stay with us! What would it hurt? It's not a High Holiday. You wouldn't have to listen to me sing in Hebrew like when you agreed to come to Seder dinner that time when my dads wanted to talk to you about the bumps in your journey to Broadway so they would know to keep me from making the same mistakes!"

"Rachel," he started firmly. "I'm fine. Nothing's going to happen to me. Watch _Funny Girl_ to calm down and then go to sleep. You'll feel better in the morning."

"But-"

"Good night, Rachel." He hung up before she could launch herself into another full blown rant and set the phone down on the coffee table. The truth was, she drove him crazy, but he would miss her the most. She was driven and focused in a way he never was. She had all the talent she would ever need to accomplish her dreams. He was maybe a little jealous, but mostly he was incredibly proud to have taught her and looked forward to buying a ticket to her first Broadway show.

It felt suddenly very cool in the apartment, so he got up and went to the thermostat, nudging the temperature higher. When chills ran up his arms, he set off to get a sweater. 

* * *

><p>Kurt's legs were starting to feel jittery with nerves and fatigue. He suggested they head back to the car so he could sit and as they turned back around on the sidewalk, Finn tugged at his hand to get his attention.<p>

"Do you believe in God now?" He asked and his eyes were narrowed with such earnest interest that Kurt didn't fire back with an immediate response. He looked forward again and contemplated the question.

A higher power certainly made sense. He didn't believe in super powers, that was for sure. Psychics, tarot cards…it was all hokum for the bored and deluded. But his vision and the feelings that had been plaguing him since then had to be coming from somewhere. Maybe it wasn't from a singular entity, a 'god', but if the universe was giving it to him then wasn't it kind of the same thing? Something much stronger, much more powerful and omniscient than sentient life. It was as good as God.

He shrugged a little. "I think…I might." It was weird to say, an odd thing to admit after being so adamant about his atheism before. But here they were.

Finn didn't seem on the verge of calling him a hypocrite or giving him an 'I-told-you-so' smirk, so Kurt didn't regret the confession. Finn just let go of his hand and wrapped his arm around his shoulders.

They were halfway back to the Navigator when he saw his dad's truck pulling up to the apartments and slowing down as it neared them. Kurt and Finn exchanged a look before redirecting their steps and walking toward his father.

Burt got out of the truck and stood by the door as he looked around to them. Carole was with him and got out of the truck too, giving them a wave before striding toward them.

"Give Carole the keys." Burt told Kurt.

He had a protest on his lips, but Carole was already extending her hand for them, so Kurt complied, slipping the keys into her palm. She smiled and turned back for the Navigator.

"Kurt, get in." Burt nodded his head toward the passenger side of the truck. "Finn, ride with your mother."

Kurt and Finn glanced up toward Mr. Schuester's apartment before meeting each other's eyes knowingly. Clearly Mr. Schuester had enough of being 'looked after' and called for reinforcements. Kurt sighed heavily, letting his shoulders slump as Finn pressed a quick 'good luck-sorry-see you soon' kiss to his lips before jogging off to climb in the Navigator with his mom.

Kurt made his way much more slowly to his father. His legs felt like they were going to sleep now, and he punched at them in annoyance after climbing in. He didn't have low blood pressure issues, so he needed to get his nerves under control before his body completely spazzed out on him. By the time they were on the road, though, they were completely asleep. He accepted defeat and reached for the radio in anticipation of the painful needles that would start up in his legs once the feeling began to return.

Burt stopped his hand before he could turn it on, though, and Kurt sat back. Great. Lecture time.

"Kurt." Burt released a slow exhale. "What's going on, buddy?"

Kurt looked toward him sharply. That wasn't the question or the tone he was expecting. 'What the hell were you thinking?' or 'Do you have any idea how inconvenient it is to have to come pick you up after working a long day at the shop?' would have been appropriate. Kurt could have squared his shoulders and answered with something snappy and equally irritated, but this was different and it was much more like his dad if he was honest with himself.

"I don't know." He answered quietly, and before he could stop himself he started spewing everything. The vision at the zoo that his father already sort of knew about, the bad feelings, the unnatural foreknowledge of what was going to happen to his friends on both occasions of tragedy, the meeting at Schuester's house, his belief that Mr. Schue was next. The 'It', the 'God', the fear of it all. By the time he was finished they were pulling up to the house.

Burt turned the ignition off and sat silently back in the driver's seat. A long minute drew out. Soon Carole pulled up behind them. She didn't look at them as she passed them sitting in the car and went to unlock the front door of the house. Finn slowed as he passed Kurt's window, though, and glanced inside the truck nervously. Kurt gave him a tiny smile to let him know he wasn't getting screamed at or grounded. Yet. Finn tapped the window with his fingertips briefly as he walked and Kurt touched his hand behind the glass, wishing he could really feel him. Soon, he and Carole disappeared into the house, and Kurt turned his attention to his father.

"Maybe it's your mother." The older Hummel said at long last.

Kurt did a double take in his direction. "I don't-I beg your pardon?"

Burt shifted uncomfortably in his seat, taking his hat off briefly to rub at his head. As he readjusted the cap on his head, he looked over at Kurt.

"Your mom, she used to say her palms got itchy before something bad happened. Like she could feel it coming. I told her she probably just needed to wash her hands." A sheepish smile lifted his lips, and Kurt furrowed his brow. Hearing about his mom always made him feel simultaneously warm and deeply sad. He never heard anything about psychic palm itchiness before. Burt took a minute to collect his thoughts before he started again.

"Look, Kurt, I don't know how much of this I really understand or how much of it I can believe. But any time your mom said her palms were itchy, I'd check the breaks and the air in the tires before I drove to work. I never took her 'feelings' for granted, and I won't do it with you. You're a good kid, Kurt. You're smart. And if you're telling me that something's going on, then I'm inclined to believe that something is going on."

Kurt stared at his father in awe. He thought he was afraid of rejection when he decided to come out to him. The past week he'd been sweating bullets thinking about what his dad would say if he confessed everything he was feeling to him. He heard the word 'crazy' run through his head a million times as he worked out scenarios in his head. 'I believe you' had never crossed his mind, and he realized regretfully that it was always _him_ that was underestimating his father. Not the other way around. 

* * *

><p>Without thinking or worrying about spoiling the moment, Kurt lurched across the panel between them and hugged his father tightly.<p>

"Thanks, Dad." He tried to convey how absolutely grateful he was for him in one word and couldn't help feeling like it was vastly insufficient. He owed his father more for his support than he could ever repay.

Burt pat his back and hugged him until Kurt was ready to let go. As they made their way out of the truck and over to the door, Burt offered to call Mr. Schuester to try to pass on his own warning. Kurt considered whether it would help as he struggled to get his sleeping legs to carry him to the door. As he reached the two steps leading to the door he tripped and went down with a shock. He scraped his wrist on the top step and looked down at his lower half in shock.

"Kurt, you okay?" Burt asked as he hurried over.

Kurt stared down, unable to stop gaping at himself. The heaviness was out of his limbs. They weren't just heavy with sleep anymore. He couldn't feel his legs at all. A cold wind cut over him, and he shivered against it. It was back.

The apartment wasn't warming up, and Will noticed Kurt's Navigator was finally gone from outside his apartment. Mr. Hummel must have come to get him and Finn. He felt a little guilty possibly getting them in trouble, but they were beginning to make him uneasy just staring up and waiting for something horrible to happen. Now that they were gone though he thought he would go for a walk and try to clear his head.

As he locked up his apartment, he looked over toward a loud noise and caught sight of one of his upstairs neighbors struggling up the landing to the next set of stairs up.

"Hey, Caleb." He waved over at him.

The man stopped huffing to look over at him. "Hey, Will. Can you believe the assholes on the road crew left this stuff lying around?" He indicated the chainsaw in his hands and the large bag he was struggling with presumably holding many other tools. "Way too late to drag this shit back to the worksite, but if I leave it in the back of my truck you just know that Jimmy kid downstairs is going to lift it just to mess with me. Fucking teenagers."

Caleb Winters would never make it as a high school teacher. In fact, he would probably rather fall down all the stairs while carrying that chainsaw over spending his days with kids. Will liked him anyway. He was always friendly-to adults-and was blue collar in a way that always impressed Will. He couldn't see himself working in the hot sun repairing roads or building things or whatever it was he really did outside all day. He was a man made for air conditioning, and Caleb was…_a man_.

Will waved with a smile and started down the stairs as Caleb continued up the next flight to his floor two stories up. As he reached the final step to the first floor landing, someone outside pushed the heavy doors to the building inward and a huge gust of freezing wind blew in and swept over him. Will stopped in his tracks in surprise as chills ran down his arms. It couldn't possibly be that cold outside.

"Whoa…whoa-whoa!" The muffled cries of Caleb wafted down from high above him, and Will lifted his head to see up the many floors of the squared, winding staircase. Caleb teetered against the edge of the banister and lost his grip on the things he was carrying. Will had time enough to gasp before it came hurtling down. The zipper broke and the bag fell open a flight down, sending sharp tools careening toward him. Will's shoe tipped off the final step in awkward surprise and he tripped backward, falling down flat.

"Mr. Schuester!" A high-pitched voice screamed.

Between breaths, strong hands clasped him under the arms and yanked him roughly backward. Before he could even blink, three saws and an assortment of hammers, nails, and drills crashed into the spot where his legs were moments earlier, the sharp ends piercing down into the floorboards. The business end of the chainsaw sliced into the floor where his chest had been, buzzing and swirling madly, having turned on somehow midway down. It bounced and spun over the floor as if searching for him as the motor kicked it around.

Will scrambled backward with the help of the person pulling him safely away. His jaw hung open in shock, and when he was a safe distance from the deadly tools, he turned to look at who had screamed for him and got him out of the way. The people who opened the door and sent in the cold breeze that initially stopped him in his tracks.

Rachel's eyes were huge as she stared at him and kept taking tiny steps farther and farther away from the jittering chainsaw. Puck let go of his arms and stepped back, a hard set to his face as his eyes flicked to Rachel and back to Will before landing and sticking on the chainsaw.

"Will!" Caleb hollered down . "Will, you okay?"

He held his hand over his heart and stared at his students. The fear in Rachel's eyes was so strong it sent his heart racing even harder in his chest. Puck was stiff at her side as he moved minutely closer to her.

"Will!"

He shook himself and glanced up toward his neighbor standing somewhere high and out of sight.

"Y-yeah!" He yelled up. "I'm…fine." He said much more quietly, because his heart was still pounding and he wasn't sure how true it was. Rachel was staring at him so hard that he stepped back and leaned against the wall, pressing his back against it and trying to get his heart to slow despite the continued roaring of the chainsaw several feet away. "Rach." Their earlier phone conversation ran through his head and he tried to fight against her argument still. "It's just a coincidence."

She straightened her back and looked him straight in the eye. "I convinced Noah to drive over here with me, because I was still worried. We were almost here when Kurt called me saying you weren't answering your phone. That he tripped on a step and couldn't feel his legs. That it meant something. About you." She turned her head and looked at the bottom of the staircase where the saws and chainsaw were cutting into the floor.

Will followed her eyes and slowly looked back at her, shoulders slumping. He sighed. "Can I still stay in your guest room?" 


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Mercedes snatched her ringing cell phone off of her nightstand and ran her thumb over the answer key in annoyance. She could hear it ringing on repeat while she was in the shower and it started up again the second she entered her room dressed in her fluffy yellow robe. It was Kurt. Why was she not surprised?

"Mercedes, don't go down-"

"Boy, stop calling me! I need some space, Kurt! Deal with it." She hung up before he could get another word in and when it started ringing right away she snapped the back open and took the battery out.

She was feeling _too much_. Tina and Artie's deaths alone were enough to consume her every thought. Before she had Glee and the small social circle the club afforded her, they had been her friends. She ached for Tina's shared laughter and Artie's faux street talk like she couldn't believe. She didn't have much experience with grief and hadn't known before that it hurt, actually physically hurt to lose people she loved. Mike, Lauren, and Sam were good people, and they were gone too. Now with Santana and Brittany killing themselves, actually _killing themselves_ amidst all of their other grief, she had a whole lot of anger piled onto her sadness.

She was feeling _too much_ and couldn't deal with her best friend's mental breakdown too. Kurt, the psychic prophet, could lean on Finn for a while, because she just couldn't handle that craziness on top of everything else. If that made her a bad friend that was just something she'd have to deal with later, when she had enough emotional room in her body to pay it any attention.

It was late. Super late. She just wanted to crawl into bed and go to sleep, so of course that's when her stomach decided to growl. She moaned, because it was a bad idea. She did not need to start stress eating right now or she was going to be the size of the house by the time she got through this year. But. One slice of her mom's cherry pie wouldn't hurt.

Stepping into her fuzzy slippers, she padded out of her room and down the hall for the stairs. Her mom was no doubt already asleep, but she could hear the soft hum of the living room television on downstairs where her father was probably still up watching Craig Ferguson.

At the top of the stairs, she yawned and stretched, stepping down onto the carpeted first step and reaching for the banister. Her little cousins were there earlier, so she shouldn't have been all that surprised by the toys littering the path or the slick feel of yellow paint as her palm slid over it on the banister. But she was. Her hand slipped down unexpectedly through the thick liquid and she dipped forward, taking a harsh misstep onto a toy car and falling forward.

She cried out as she went down, banging into the steps. Her hand smacked against her cousin's ice skate and knocked it ahead of her down the stairs. Mercedes tumbled down, rolling and slamming into each step roughly. She flipped over with time enough to panic as her face slammed toward the blade of the ice skate before a sneakered foot kicked it across the room and she plowed hard into the hardwood floor at the bottom of the landing.

"Mercedes!" Two voices screamed in unison, one much higher than the gruffer one coming from her father as he ran to the staircase.

She felt like she had been stoned, put in a blender and then poured down the garbage disposal. She slowly raised her head to see Finn looking down at her as he bent into a squat, reaching hesitantly for her. Her eyes rolled toward the ice skate now laying harmlessly against a far wall and looked back up at Finn. He would be getting a lot of baked goods from her for a while.

Before she could assess whether she'd actually broken anything or done any serious damage to herself, her father was pushing Finn out of the way and examining her himself. As he fussed and asked her questions she was still too filled with adrenaline to understand, she looked up at Kurt standing off to the side watching her fearfully. What had he tried to yell at her over the phone before she hung up on him?

_Mercedes, don't go down-_

She had a pretty good idea that sentence would have ended with stairs and maybe would have included sharp blades to the face… She slumped against her father and shut her eyes.

Prophet Kurt it was. 

* * *

><p>Kurt knelt at the end of Finn's bed staring at him play his PSP as he yawned against the headboard. His thumbs flew all over the place as he looked down at the little screen playing some mind numbing game or another. His hair was wet from the shower and his bare feet occasionally bumped Kurt's knees as he bobbed them casually.<p>

Mercedes left with her parents to the hospital and only got Kurt not to follow her by promising to text him as soon as she was cleared. She seemed pretty positive that she was fine, but her gaze had flicked away from his several times before she squeezed him tightly.

"I believe you, Kurt." She had whispered in his ear and a two ton weight left his shoulders. Those were the only three words he had wanted to hear from her since this all began. Not 'I believe that you believe'; just the absolute faith that best friendship had spoiled him with. With Mercedes on his side, he felt much better about the situation. Until he realized who was next.

Finn didn't share his concern or at least he was refusing to talk about it. They drove home and he went straight to his room after telling his mom about what happened with Mercedes and how they had to rush out earlier because Kurt had another one of his feelings. Burt had already spoken to Carole about it, but the new information seemed to make her even more uncomfortable. She wasn't on board with the whole psychic thing, and Kurt didn't blame her. He loved Carole, but her disbelief didn't cause him any grief either. As long as it didn't interfere with him protecting Finn, she could believe whatever she wanted.

Ten minutes ago he got a text.

**From Mercedes:**

_All good. Docs say I'm lucky. LUCK, huh… 3 u_

After that he was able to focus his complete attention on Finn; an intense concentration that was beginning to wear on Finn apparently. He flipped his game off and tossed it on the nightstand, looking up at Kurt.

"Dude. You're staring."

"Yes." Kurt answered.

"Quit it."

"No." Kurt replied, not even blinking between responses.

Finn sighed and leaned forward reaching for him and tugging him up on the bed with him. He kicked at the covers until he could pull it over them and tucked Kurt into his side.

"I'm safe." Finn whispered against his cheek.

Kurt scoffed. "How can you say that? _It_, the devil-demon-grim reaper thing has you in its sights. There's no way to hide from it. And no offense, but you're kind of a giant target. You're like the opposite of a needle in a hay stack. It's like looking for hay."

Finn chuckled into his hair, and Kurt frowned.

"Maybe." Finn conceded. "But I have you. You'll feel something or see something, and we'll stop it. I'm not going anywhere."

Kurt's eyes watered and he gripped the arm Finn had around him tightly. "Tell that to Brittany and Santana."

Finn pulled him closer against him. "How bout I tell that to Mr. Schue and Mercedes."

Kurt twisted in his arms and faced him with a deep frown. "Stop being so optimistic. It's not helping, and we don't know that I'll get another feeling. This whole thing is crazy and unpredictable."

Finn pushed at Kurt's bangs, eyes flicking over his face as he pet him. He shrugged against the mattress. "Fine. You won't see anything, and I'm going to die. Who cares?" He squeezed Kurt's waist when he let out a choked noise and went back to petting his hair back. "You believe in God now, right? So, we'll be together again eventually anyway. Win, win."

Kurt's hand jumped up to Finn's cheek and he looked him in the eye with a lump in his throat. "Shut up." He tilted up and pressed a soft kiss to his lips, dissolving into it for a while. He broke away but didn't move back, staring at him seriously. "I mean it. Go back to optimism."

Finn kissed him again, turning to press him down into the bed. "I'm safe." He whispered. "You're going to save me."

Kurt tried to focus on Finn's warm body above him and not on how quickly his heart was racing, because for once in his life Finn couldn't afford to be wrong. 

* * *

><p>It was hot. Really hot. Couldn't get enough air in his lungs hot. Kurt tried to take a big breath, but there was something eating up the air in the tight space he seemed to be stuck in. He looked around wildly but it was pitch black. He reached out and felt along for a door or a latch, but he seemed to be trapped in a four sided structure, like a box or a… Or a coffin.<p>

Panic exploded within Kurt and he pounded on the roof of the structure, beginning to scream-only his voice didn't sound like him. Instead of letting out a high pitched yelp, his shouts were deep and booming. Kind of exactly like Finn would have sounded.

_Finn._

The thought yanked Kurt out of the dream and sent him shooting up in bed. He pat the empty bed beside him.

"Finn," he choked out, voice raspy with sleep. Shoving the covers off of him, he stumbled out of bed and hurried to the door, throwing it open and flying out into the hall. "Finn?" He called louder, heart hammering in his chest. Setting off at a clumsy jog, he hurried to the staircase and went down like there was a giant Indiana Jones ball rolling toward him.

He was almost hysterical by the time he reached the kitchen, "Finn!"

Kurt ran through the door and Finn jumped hard at the table, looking up at him startled. His cheeks were stuffed and there was a basket full of sweets on the table in front of him. Kurt sunk against the counter, overwhelmed with relief.

"You weren't there when I woke up." He panted.

Finn looked down at the half-eaten muffin in his hand and back up at him. "Mercedes stopped by already. She stayed up baking all this stuff for us!" He beckoned to the sugar, fat, and calorie buffet like it was the answer to world peace. Kurt slunk over and collapsed into the chair next to him, still trying to get his heart rate down. Finn reached out and ran his fingers through his rarely seen messy bed-head. "You okay?"

Kurt briefly debated whether or not to tell Finn what he dreamt, but if he didn't and something in it could have helped Finn avoid trouble he would never forgive himself. He swallowed, hating the icky morning taste in his mouth. He needed to sneak away to brush his teeth. Maybe he could convince Finn to come with him so he could keep an eye on him in the mirror. He wondered if those tracking ankle bracelets were sold commercially.

"I had a dream about you." He confessed.

Finn sniggered and his hand dropped to his leg, way too smug to even be in the same realm of thought as Kurt.

"Not that kind of dream." Kurt clarified and looked at him pointedly. Finn's smile only slightly dimmed, but after a few moments of being stared down by Kurt he finally got it.

"Oh." He went stiff. "So…you know. You know how… You know how I'm…going to… Uh… Oh."

Kurt waited patiently for him to ramble himself out, reaching down and squeezing the hand on his leg. "Maybe." He answered, because it was always possible that he just had a bad dream about Finn because he was stressing about something bad happening to Finn. That wasn't what it felt like though. "This is good." He assured Finn. "This is what we wanted, right? A sign."

Finn didn't look so sure. "Right. Um. Don't tell me."

"Finn!" Kurt exclaimed. They couldn't afford to be chickens about this. Chickens got themselves killed. He needed to put on his kilt and sew one for Finn too, because it was gay Braveheart time. At least until they got through this, and then they could devolve into hysterical chickens.

"You can know, and that's cool. Good even. Yeah, you can look out for me. Make sure I don't step in a bear trap or whatever it is you saw. But me, no. I shouldn't know. Last night it was thermo rhetorical-"

"Theoretical."

"Yeah, but now it's-I mean, you already had a dream, so it's going to happen soon right? Like today? Like in a few minutes-Shit, Kurt, was I in a kitchen?" Finn was losing it, and if Kurt let himself think about it too hard he was going to lose it too. "I was, wasn't I? What is it? I was going to fry some eggs-it was the frying pan right? Or the gas? Did I blow up? Is mom in the house when it happens-"

Kurt reached out and slapped the muffin out of Finn's hand, sending it tumbling over the table until it rolled off the edge and plopped on the floor. It was stupid, but it worked. Finn froze and shut up, watching its slow demise. He looked slowly back at Kurt, lips parted and breathing deeply through his mouth, but silent.

"You weren't in a kitchen." He promised. Finn nodded mutely. "You were in a tight space. It was dark, and it was hard to breathe." There really was no easy way to say it, so he just blurted it out. "I'm pretty sure you were in a coffin."

Finn's brow furrowed as he puzzled that out. "Like buried alive?" A giant grin spread across his face. Uh-oh. Which was worse, panicked and hysterical or getting nutty with stress? "Well, that's easy then! I won't go to a cemetery or anywhere that has coffins, so I won't fall in one or whatever."

Kurt wasn't so positive. "Someone might put you in one intentionally." He pointed out.

Finn shook his head and shrugged unconvinced. "No way. Who would want to kill me?"

Besides Death, he didn't know. No one. "This doesn't mean you can get careless. We're not even sure the dream was really prophetic, and even if it was, the plan could always change if we try to change things."

Finn nodded seriously, but Kurt could tell he was relaxing at the thought of coffins being the only thing he needed to avoid. After all, how often did he find himself among coffins anyway? 'Never' seemed like the appropriate word. Kurt frowned and vowed to keep him stuck to his hip for as long as it took for them to get through this. How hard could it be to keep track of one Frankenteen? 

* * *

><p>Kurt was sitting on Finn's lap in the choir room as he practiced the drums around him, only moving to adjust Kurt's weight higher on his thigh when he first sat down. Kurt leaned back against him, dropping his head to his shoulder and just listening to Finn hit the drums with practiced precision. It was odd how much rhythm he had when he played percussion but that rhythm completely disappeared when he tried to dance.<p>

Three days had passed since his dream, but nothing had happened. He kept Finn in his sights at all times, only leaving him when he needed to use the restroom, and even then he stayed outside the door and waited, listening for sounds of trouble. He was starting to suffocate Finn, he knew, though he was being a good sport about it since the alternative seemed to be a brutal death.

Glee was over. They only kept going because they all sensed that this was it. Graduation was just around the corner, and then most of them would disappear from each other's lives. Part of Kurt ached at the thought, but a much larger part was too focused on survival to give the end of high school much thought. Besides, 'yay, no more Karofsky or Karofsky-like henchman', he hadn't paid it much attention at all.

Mr. Schuester looked tired. Rachel called Kurt and said their teacher was staying at her house, a weird but oddly fitting arrangement. Kurt didn't want anything to happen to him either, but he could hardly imagine extending an invitation for him to come stay with him until everything was sorted. Though, he figured Mr. Schuester was in the clear already since Death already came for him and was thwarted. It couldn't hurt to be precautious though, so he hadn't nudged Rachel to kick him out or anything.

"You ready?" Finn asked with a yawn as he wrapped up his drum solo and sat back, setting his sticks down. Kurt nodded and slid off of his lap.

"Hey, Rachel." Kurt called to her as everyone began collecting their stuff. "Keep your phone charged, on, and with you at all times." His look was pointed and serious. She stared at him a moment, but she got it. She was next after Finn. She nodded plainly and Kurt noticed Mr. Schue watching them. Maybe that was why he was still staying with her after recovering from the shock of the other night. His best student would soon have something dark and crazy after her, and after her intervention he sort of owed her.

Well, good. She could use all of the help she could get. They all could.

Finn ended up having to go to the locker room to get the dirty clothes he had stuffed in there out so his mom could wash them. The day he learned how to do his own laundry, the sky would probably fall on them.

By the time they made it out to the student parking lot, the rest of it was clear. Finn held his duffel bag full of smelly clothes in one hand but draped his other arm around Kurt's shoulders, giving him a small strained smile as they walked to the Navigator. They were both feeling the pressure of being on high alert twenty-four/seven. It was draining. Kurt would be surprised if they came out of this without PTSD and a lifelong commitment to psychotherapy.

They were halfway to his parking spot when his spine tingled, little ghostly spiders crawling under his skin. He shivered and turned. Out of the corner of his eye, a flash of bright red flames rose and hissed from the cement. He flinched and jumped, running into Finn and making them stumble as he whipped around to face the fire. But there was nothing there.

"Kurt-"

Finn didn't have time to finish that thought. Tall figures began popping out of their crouches from behind the Navigator, running at them like they were holding the football in the last quarter of a close football game. Kurt gasped, and Finn was in the middle of swearing, startled and shocked, when Azimio's arms closed around Kurt. His bag fell to the ground. He immediately started to struggle, mind spinning and mouth opening on instinct. He screamed, high pitched and loud, releasing his freak-out with as much volume as possible. Someone might still be lingering around campus. Someone might hear him if he made himself sound endangered enough. Except he only got half a shriek out before one of Azimio's fat hands slapped down around his mouth and muffled him.

He kicked and squirmed as he was lifted off the ground, but Azimio felt like a giant welded robot. He struggled against his machine-like grip to no avail, eyes going wide and panicked as he absorbed Finn being tackled to the ground by Karofsky, and the identical twins from the hockey team, Marcus and Manny Carter. Finn was lazy, but he worked out regularly for all of the sports he played and he had his size on his side so it was taking all three of them to keep him down as Karofsky struggled with a pair of silver handcuffs.

Handcuffs? They came prepared. He and Finn were hounded pretty regularly for being gay and daring to be open about it, but slushies, dumpster dives, and the occasional swirlie were usually the extent of their physical torment. Most of the time the goons were content to just throw some hate speech at them, guffaw and move on, slapping each other's hands. At the worst, Kurt got shoved into the lockers. It sucked and it hurt, but this was much, much worse. This was planned. Thought out, and so far it seemed to be panning out very well for them.

Karofsky got one cuff around Finn's left wrist, twisting his arm behind his back even as he managed to free one of his legs from under Marcus and kick Manny hard in the kneecap. He cried out, and Kurt felt a swell of satisfaction amidst his panic. But Karofsky already had the other handcuff on Finn and was shoving him back to his feet.

Azimio started carrying Kurt off, and he quickly realized why. A rundown blue car was speeding their way, and he saw Travis Burrows, the biggest meathead on the hockey team, behind the wheel. They really planned this out, actually spent time figuring out the best way to get them alone so they could…. Could what? What did they want? Kurt's heart was just about pounding out of his chest as the car squealed to a stop and Travis popped the trunk. His eyes grew even wider, and he began struggling manically in Azimio's hold, making it as difficult as possible for him to hold on to him.

He heard the clanking of metal as Azimio slapped him belly first against the door of the car and reached into the pocket of his letterman jacket. With his hand off of his mouth, Kurt let loose a wild scream.

Finn's grunts and noisy struggling instantly cut off with a livid shout. "Get off of him! What are you doing? Stop!"

"Let go of me, you overgrown brute!" Kurt wiggled like a furious rattlesnake, shaking and feral, but Azimio's thick fingers held him in place with bruising strength. Unlike in the monitored hallways during school hours, he wasn't holding anything back, and it hurt. Kurt's normally composed façade dropped beneath the aching grip, and his voice swelled with the fear he determinedly hid from his tormentors on every previous encounter. He tried to hide it under his indignation with little success.

Kurt swallowed hard. "What's the goal here, boys, because if you shove me in that trunk this officially escalates from bullying to kidnapping and assault!"

Kurt was yanked far enough away from the car for Azimio to smack him back against it so hard his entire chest went numb for a split second before the throbbing came, pounding along his ribcage. Kurt released an unintentional squeak of pain.

"Azimio, I'm going to kick your fucking ass!" Finn shouted so angrily he didn't sound like himself. Kurt tried to twist around to see him, because from the sound of it, it was taking the three other jocks far more effort to keep Finn restrained than it was taking Azimio to lock him in place. He couldn't turn his head enough to see them though.

"Finn!" Kurt screamed desperately, breathing in short terrified gasps as Azimio slammed a pair of handcuffs on him next.

"I swear to God if you-" The end of Finn's shout was swallowed by a hard pounding sound and a brief, low grunt. Kurt twisted around as Azimio pulled him away from the car at last and began dragging him back toward the trunk. Finn was on his knees, head lolling on his shoulders, seemingly unconscious. Marcus and Manny were holding him up on either side, and Karofsky was panting behind him with what looked like a thick red brick in his hands. A blink later though, the object altered, and Kurt looked at the heavy looking flashlight that Karofsky was actually holding in confusion. They knocked him out.

Kurt started shaking as the weight of the situation sunk in. Azimio shoved him down into the trunk, and he tried repeatedly to wiggle his way up with his hands tied behind his back, but Travis knocked him back down every time, laughing as he did. Finally, they managed to drag Finn's dead weight over, and together, the three of them that weren't on Kurt Watch lifted him up and crammed him in beside Kurt in the tight space. The last thing he saw before they closed the trunk was their smug grins, and the first thought he had when the trunk was shut tight was how the pitch black darkness made the air feel instantly thinner.

Just like a coffin. 


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews, alerts, and favorites! I really appreciate it!

**Chapter Seven**

There had to be a way out of this. There was always a way out of things like this. Divine intervention if nothing else. Except that the powerful, all knowing universe seemed to be on Karofsky's side. What's the worst that they could do? Beat them up and leave them. There was no way it would go beyond that. Kurt couldn't let himself think about anything worse than that, because his eyes kept filling with tears and his mind went white with panic. He needed to think clearly and forget about his own safety for now. Finn was in seriously deep shit here. He had to have been in this trunk in the dream he had the other night.

So did that mean he wouldn't be coming out of it alive? Would Death skip the people ahead of Kurt on the list and just kill them there together?

He was busy trying to come up with any idea as to what they should do as the car drove along to who knew where, when Finn shifted subtly beside him. It was a medium sized trunk but a very tight fit with both of them crammed inside of it. Claustrophobia would have been an issue without Finn's large body shoved up against him.

Finn stiffened. "Kurt?" He croaked out weakly.

Relief flooded through him. Finn hadn't responded at all when Kurt tried to yell and jostle him awake five minutes ago. He leaned closer awkwardly, his shoulders beginning to burn from having his arms stuck behind him, and he pressed a kiss against Finn's cheek, missing his mouth in the dark. He kissed his way over to his lips. After a moment, Finn kissed him back and reached blindly for his hand, grunting when he met with resistance and was unable to get his arm in front of him. Realizing he was restrained, he stopped squirming.

"Where are we?" He whispered.

Kurt gulped. There was no use denying it. "I think we're in your coffin. The trunk of Travis Burrows' car." If the situation wasn't bad enough, it smelled like gym socks in there.

"Fuck." Finn groaned. "My head hurts."

"They knocked you out." Kurt supplied.

"Fuck."

Apparently, Finn's vernacular shrunk even more when faced with a crisis.

"Yes." Kurt agreed. "Fuck indeed."

Finn hesitated, and Kurt wished he could see his face. Even that much would have calmed him a little. Finn wiggled minutely closer so that their chests were pressed against each other.

"Did they hurt you?" He asked quietly, sounding fearful of the answer. It brought a lump to Kurt's throat. No. But they were going to.

Kurt blinked away his tears. "No." He promised instead of giving him another dose of reality. He leaned into him and kissed him, missing his lips again and clipping his nose. "Listen," he whispered even though he thought that maybe they should have been screaming. It hadn't helped the first ten minutes they had been driving, but Karofsky and company hadn't pulled over to gag him so he had to think they weren't in danger of being overheard by helpful ears. Finn laid his forehead against his, as comforting as he could be without the use of his arms. "When they open the trunk, you need to try to run for it. Don't worry about me."

It was a strange if not selfless request, so he expected the lack of immediate agreement from Finn. "Did they hit you in the head too?"

"Finn, you're next on the list."

"So?"

He groaned. He really wished there was even a sliver of light in there so he could try to plead with him with his eyes. Taking a moment, he tried to phrase his response in a way that would convince him. "I don't think I _can_ die. Not before you and the others ahead of me on the list. It's not how it works. There's a pattern. A design, and if I died now it wouldn't fit with the design. So if you get an opening, you take it. Just leave and get help and come back for me. But _go_."

That was assuming that they got out of the trunk at all. Kurt was trying hard not to think about that, because if they didn't get out of the trunk then they didn't have a chance. They could get in an accident and Finn could die right next to him, stuck in the trunk, and he would be left there beside his body. He had to choke back against his gag reflex; the thought was so sickening. This could not be it. They couldn't be helpless. Otherwise, why would he even have the dream? If he could do nothing about the signs, then why get them in the first place?

He decided to take a page out of Finn's book and think about how seeing the signs did help Mercedes and Mr. Schuester. He just had to get Finn out of there so nothing the boys did could get out of hand. He didn't think they were capable of dragging them somewhere to kill them, but then again he didn't think they had it in them to tie them up and kidnap them either. Accidents happened. Finn had to get away if he could.

"Just leave me." Kurt willed him to see the logic in it. The idea of being left alone with five overexcited steroid addicts was terrifying, but the possibility of losing Finn to a prank gone wrong was far worse.

"Babe," Finn's breath was hot against Kurt's cheek and though it made the space feel even smaller and his panic rise a little more, he couldn't bring himself to pull back. "I think that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard you say."

He started pressing kisses against his cheek, and Kurt knew it was a lost cause. Snuggling as close as he could, he ducked his head under Finn's chin and breathed into his chest. If Finn wouldn't save himself, then he would just have to figure out how to do it on his own.

He squeezed his eyes shut in the useless darkness and tried to breathe slow and shallow in the tight space. He thought about holding his breath to save air for Finn, but he would just end up gasping for air when he couldn't hold his lungs still anymore and eat up the last of the oxygen. He had to stay calm. He was concentrating so hard on not losing himself over to his nerves that he didn't notice the car stopped until the trunk was pulled open and a blinding pool of sunlight burned through his vision.

"Aw, look, Karofsky, the fruitcakes are cuddling." Azimio sneered, and though he was an awful sight, Kurt rejoiced at the burst of cool wind that blew into the trunk. He inhaled deeply and noticed Finn do the same. "Let's go, Jolly Gay Giant."

Azimio grabbed Finn's closest arm and hauled him up, waiting for Manny to step up and grab his other side before yanking him out and throwing him down before he could get his feet under him. Marcus laughed as Finn fell hard on his side, unable to break his fall with his arms tied behind his back. Azimio pulled Kurt out next. He staggered but didn't fall. Karofsky rounded the car and kicked Finn half-heartedly in the ribs, eliciting a small groan. Kurt's temper flared.

"You're really tough, aren't you? Four guys against one. You had to put your tacky party store handcuffs on him to save yourself from a major ass whooping! Have your stupid fun, but at school on Monday I think I'll shelf my anti-violence speech and watch while he reminds you exactly who's bigger!"

It wasn't smart to rile them up or tempt them toward payback for his back talk, but Kurt couldn't help it. Finn snickered up at him from the ground. There; that was reason enough. Finn needed to keep his spirit up, because there was no telling what they were in for and he was in far worse danger. If they got him down too quickly it might all be over. Kurt's heart pounded, and he waited for one of them to smack him. Nobody did.

Karofsky chuckled. "We'll see about that, won't we." He and Azimio pulled Finn to his feet. "When we're done, Finn will probably fit in a pickle jar. Smaller than us?" He turned to Azimio.

Azimio nodded. "Definitely smaller."

Kurt's stomach dropped. "Pardon?"

They were on a dirt path between a tall chainlink fence and an old abandoned looking building. Karofsky walked over to it and tugged on the bottom of the garage-like door until it began to roll up. The inside was dark and Kurt saw a tall rusted looking black structure situated just inside. Karofsky's smile was disturbingly self-satisfied. "Welcome to my uncle's old crematorium."

Finn squinted in confusion, clearly utterly clueless as to what he was talking about. Kurt, on the other hand, felt like someone sucked all of the air out of the planet and stuck a shot of adrenaline directly into his bloodstream.

"What's wrong with you?" It was barely a whisper.

Kurt had his concerns, of course. It was hard being an openly gay kid in conservative Lima, Ohio. His dad taught him to be vigilant and aware of his surroundings at all times, because bigotry wasn't just ignorant, it was dangerous. But this wasn't an abstract idea of violence, something he could protect himself from. This was a blast of reality that made all his previous fear of hypothetical situations pale in comparison. He couldn't have been more scared if he had taken a nap in the trunk and run into a real life Freddy Krueger in his dream state.

"Kurt?" Finn asked.

Kurt's eyes flicked toward his expectant face, but he didn't have it in him to explain. He had to keep him calm for as long as possible. Looking at Finn, tied up and innocently confused, he had to battle another round of indignant rage. He forced his voice to be firm and strong, keeping the quake in his limbs out of it.

"You listen to me, David Karofsky." He looked him straight in the eyes. "You did what you came here to do. You scared us. We're scared. You kicked us around, and we'll have bruises to remember this by. Now you get back in the car, you drive away and leave us here. We won't tell anyone, because it wouldn't matter anyway. It's done." It was a struggle to keep himself from shouting or weeping or shaking or anything besides keeping his voice calm. "You win. Okay."

Karofsky tilted his head to the side like he was considering his words, but Azimio chuckled behind them and Karofsky slowly grinned. "Nah. I say we roast 'em."

"I'll get the marshmallows." Travis elbowed his fellow hockey players and got the laughs he aimed for.

Finn might not have understood what a crematorium was, but he understood 'roasting' something just fine. He looked wildly from Kurt to Karofsky to the oven-like structure inside the building with wide eyes, getting it.

"What? Fuck! Dude! What the-," Azimio slapped a hand around his mouth, shutting him up, and he and the other three hockey players began pushing and shoving Finn forward. To Finn's credit, he was resisting pound for pound.

There was no way Kurt was going to be able to throw off all four boys and get Finn out of there. His only hope was getting to help before they could do any serious damage. Turning on his heel he started at a run in the opposite direction toward the road, catching them by surprise. He could shout, but he could whistle louder. Adjusting his lips, he released a long high-pitched sharp whistle as he ran. Anyone who heard it would at least look his way, and if someone in a passing car noticed him and didn't stop they would still notice something was really off and maybe call the police.

He whistled and ran, too desperate and scared to care how completely insane he looked. It was hard to keep his balance with his arms tied behind his back, and he tripped over a rock. It was enough of a stall for Karofsky to reach and tackle him to the ground.

"Not so fast, Hummel. The fun's just starting. You don't wanna miss your boyfriend's bonfire, do you?"

"Please, don't do this. We're fixing to graduate-you never have to see us again! You're a stupid bully, Karofsky, you're not a murderer!"

Karofsky just laughed and pulled him to his feet, successfully covering his mouth with his big palm and dragging him back toward the others. They were already inside the building, holding Finn against the specially built furnace. Travis pulled it open with a loud, old creak. The square door had a small rectangular window at the top and a black shutter covering it. Travis pulled it out of the way of the glass as the twins began forcing Finn inside. The opening was about five feet off the ground, making them lift Finn to shove him in.

"No!" Finn yelled.

"Stop it! STOP!" Kurt screamed, struggling forward and trying to free his arms from the grip Karofsky had on him from behind.

"No! Don't!" They picked Finn up and shoved his legs in first to avoid the wild kicks he was firing off. Finn pressed his feet down against the metal bed inside and pushed hard, managing to push back out some. "Kurt!" Tears pricked at Finn's eyes as he fought back.

Karofsky clamped a hand back over Kurt's mouth, muffling his screams, and Azimio stepped forward to help the twins shove Finn all the way in. Travis was waiting and slammed the door shut the second he was out of the way. Azimio popped the deadbolt into place, and they all stepped back and laughed. Uproarious hearty laughter billowed between them as they looked at Finn pound on the rectangular window, muffled shouts frenzied with increasing panic.

Kurt threw his foot down hard on Karofsky's sneaker and almost managed to yank himself free.

"Ow!" Karofsky jerked him back against him angrily, but Kurt twisted and writhed, shouting and biting his hand when he tried to silence him. "Fuck! Chill, Hummel!" Karofsky barked in his ear. "The damn thing's broken. My uncle hasn't used this place in years. We're just going to scare the shit out of him. You fucking assholes deserve it after all your psychic bullshit."

"Psychic!" Azimio repeated, shaking his head. "Ya'll are crazy, and you need some of that crazy shit scared out of you. Am I right? I'm right."

"He's right." Travis shrugged, sharing a faux intellectual glance and nod with the twins.

A chill ran through Kurt as he recalled the burst of flames he saw out of the corner of his eye in the student parking lot. The ones that weren't there. The ones that were coming.

"It's not broken!"

"We didn't even push the button." Karofsky said disgustedly, as though Kurt was getting on his nerves by not getting as much amusement out of the whole thing as he was. "You don't barbeque people with motion sensors. Relax."

"Let him out!" Kurt screamed. "You don't have to believe me! Just please do it! You scared him enough, okay? He's scared-let him out!"

Karofsky groaned but nodded at Travis. The other guy chuckled but walked back over to the furnace where Finn was pounding and fogging up the glass with his shouts. He grabbed the thick rusted deadbolt and tried to slide it up so he could pull it loose, but it didn't budge. He frowned and tugged again, looking back over and shrugging.

"It's stuck."

"What?" Karofsky said annoyed.

"No," Kurt whispered and when he jerked his arms forcefully away from Karofsky, the jock didn't immediately grab him again, distractedly looking at Travis try to wiggle the lock free. "Let me out of these!" Kurt shoved his hands back toward Karofsky. His deathly pale complexion got through to him like his shouting hadn't, and Karofsky began fumbling for the keys in his pocket.

"Come on, dude, open it." Marcus said, sounding a little more subdued.

"Man, move outta the way." Azimio clipped Travis with his shoulder and took his place, grabbing the deadbolt and pushing on it. He made a face at Finn's loud shouts. "Yeah, yeah, we hear you. Just chill, quarterback, we'll let you and the little queen go in a minute. I'm getting hungry anyway. Anyone wanna hit McDonald's after this? Queers not included." Azimio groaned with effort as he tried to force the lock open. He tried again and frowned. "It's fucking rusted shut or something."

"You just locked it!" Karofsky called back, dropping the keys to the handcuffs on the hood of the car and leaving Kurt to walk over to his friends. Kurt scratched the hood as he scooped the little silver keys up.

"Dude!" Manny was looking in the little window. Finn's shouts increased and the pounding grew harder and more frantic. "I just saw a flame! It's gone, but I saw a flame!"

"What?" Marcus stepped up next to his brother.

"No way." Karofsky dismissed him immediately but there was an edge of fear in his voice as he turned back to Azimio. "Dude, get him out!"

"This thing is jammed!" Azimio barked back, still tugging at it.

Kurt fumbled with the keys behind his back and stepped up to the window. He locked eyes with Finn, crouched and awkward in the oven. His banging stopped, and Kurt continued to blindly poke the key behind him, hurriedly twisting his wrist to get it to go toward the little hole.

"Kurt." A horrible look of knowing flashed in Finn's eyes, locked in the small, dark chamber. The chamber from Kurt's dream. He was going to die in there.

The key slipped in at last, clicking the restraints loose. Kurt shook his wrists free and the handcuffs fell to the floor.

Behind Finn, at the back of the furnace, a line of fire shot up from the burners below, shooting light through the body length sized tunnel. It crackled at the back and steadily grew higher, not yet expanding forward.

"Oh shit!" Manny or Marcus or Travis shouted and the three of them jumped back.

"No!" Kurt shouted.

"Oh fuck me! Fuck!" Azimio instantly stopped trying to work the lock backward and stumbled back. Kurt lurched forward and took over, but it felt like trying to push a steel door with broken hinges.

"Kurt!" Finn's shout was loud and thin with fright, a half-sob catching in his throat.

"Finn!" He screamed back, heart and mind racing a million miles a minute. "Kick it! Finn, kick it!"

"Forget this! I'm out of here!" Azimio's eyes were wide on the furnace, and he tripped backward running into Travis and pushing back toward the car. The twins rammed into them from behind as they all scrambled back for the car.

Kurt's eyes grew in horror. They were going to leave. He kept tugging at the lock as Finn twisted around with difficulty in the crematorium to get his feet in front of him. He threw his legs out in unison, kicking out against the door like a battering ram.

"Wait!" Kurt shouted after the fleeing boys.

Azimio already had the engine started and was shouting for Karofsky to get in the car. Karofsky looked torn, head flying between the car and the furnace where the flame at the back was growing higher and began to slowly spread forward. His chest rose and collapsed with short, heavy breaths.

"Hudson's stuck!" He shouted.

"Get in the car, Karofsky!" Travis shouted back, hanging his arm out and pounding on the passenger door.

"No way, man! We have to help him!" He yelled back, but that was the final second he had because Azimio slammed on the gas and tore down the dirt path at the back of the building in a particularly slow part of town. The car disappeared around the corner, and Kurt's wide eyes stung with tears of shock and disbelief.

His head flew around toward the open field beyond the chainlink fence and the quiet surroundings desperately. "Help!" He screamed as high and loud as he could, fear tearing his throat raw. "Someone help me!"

The fire hissed forward, crackling and sparking in bright orange and yellow. Finn gripped the side of the metal bed, quickly warming from the heat generating at the back and a horrible scream tore out of him as the fire cut over his hand. He withdrew it quickly but his shouts were an endless stream after that, legs repeatedly pounding into the thick furnace door.

"Move!" Karofsky shoved Kurt aside and took over at the lock. His arms were thicker and his muscles were at least twice as strong as Kurt's, so he didn't protest. He went to the window and thought his knees might go out from under him.

About a third of the furnace was full of fire. Finn was bunched up as close to the door as possible, keeping himself out of it, but his kicks were short and ineffective without being able to spread out and gain momentum.

"Kurt!" Finn cried desperately. "Can't…" He gasped harshly. "Can't breathe!" He coughed and choked, kicks growing lethargic as he struggled for air.

"Open it!" Kurt screamed at Karofsky whose brow was sparkly with sweat as he tightened his grip on the lock and twisted as hard as he could to no avail. Kurt grabbed the top of the door, growing warm from the fire within it. He couldn't imagine the heat suffocating and threatening to swallow Finn inside. He tugged at the door uselessly, his palms pink as he drew back.

He stumbled backward, hands shaking and body vibrating with fear and adrenaline. Karofsky groaned and hollered as his efforts continued to do nothing. Kurt's eyes flew everywhere, scanning the shadowy building for anything to help them break the door in or smash the window or-

His eyes caught on a small pile of debris beside a desk with a broken leg pressed against the wall. Almost covered by long splintered pieces of wood, a thick red brick stuck out. His mind flashed on Karofsky standing over Finn in the student parking lot, holding a flashlight that he used to knock him out with. Except when he first looked, he hadn't seen a flashlight in his hands. He had seen a thick red brick. The same brick poking out of the dusty pile of trash at the wall.

Kurt crossed to it on heavy, numb legs and tossed the wood off of it. He ran back-the frantic screams of someone he loved searing into his mind-and shoved Karofsky hard out of the way. Raising the brick high over his head, he brought it down on the lock. It didn't budge and he raised it again, slamming it down and making the bolt scrape against the door, scratchy and metallic. Kurt brought it down again and it busted, breaking away from the door and clanging loudly against the concrete floor.

Karofsky grabbed the top of the black door and swung it outward. Kurt was already reaching inside before he had it fully back. His fists dug into Finn's waistband and t-shirt and he pulled with thoughtless roughness, hauling Finn out of the furnace as quickly as possible. He collapsed onto the ground and Karofsky shoved the door closed. It was hardly in place before the fire swarmed the rest of the furnace, blazing against the window as though staring out at its lost prey.

Finn panted and shook on the floor, holding his burned hand against him and shivering despite the warmth of his skin and the sweat soaking his hair. Kurt sat on his knees and clung to him, squeezing hard enough to hurt but physically unable to loosen the arms encircling him. He pressed his cheek against his hair, eyes thick and cheeks soaked with instantaneous sobs.

"I got you, sweetie. I got you." He whispered through his cries, rocking him gently and rubbing his arm soothingly. Finn's good hand shot up and gripped one of the arms Kurt had secured around him, breathing deeply and jittering in his embrace.

Kurt stared up at Karofsky standing a few feet away, white and tense in a state of shock. His eyes rolled down and he absorbed them there silently. He opened his mouth soundlessly but only sputtered in a speechless stupor.

Kurt looked away and closed his eyes as he leaned into Finn. Behind them, the fire howled. 


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

**Chapter Eight**

Kurt chewed on his thumb nail as he paced outside of Finn's hospital room until he caught himself and made a look of disgust. Shoving his hand in his pocket, he forced a deep breath and tried to calm himself. He was fine. A doctor checked him out after they took Finn to a curtained off section by himself to check his hand. The burn wasn't major, it was more like a blister. He was going to be fine and wouldn't be scarred, but that didn't ease the conflicting bursts of emotion stressing Kurt out.

They moved Finn into a room after bandaging his hand up, because they wanted to put an oxygen mask on him for a while. The smoke he inhaled seemed to be a bigger concern to them than the light burn. That and the concussion he sustained from getting bashed in the head.

Carole was in there with him now, and his dad was off talking to police. Azimio, Travis, Marcus and Manny were already taken from their homes and arrested for kidnapping and aggravated assault. Karofsky had walked to the nearest gas station and called an ambulance for them but disappeared after that. The charges might go up to attempted murder after the DA looked at the case. As much as Kurt hated them, he didn't think that was their intention. It was a prank gone wrong. Just as he suspected. If Death wasn't hunting them, it might have just been a prank. For that reason only, he wasn't sure whether he wanted them to be charged so heavily.

But thinking about Finn's face, twisted in horror and those screams… He would never in his lifetime rid himself of the sound of Finn screaming for his life inside of that crematorium. The room felt several degrees colder than it was, but it would probably take him a while to shake the chill that had crawled under his skin and taken residence.

Thinking he had given Carole long enough to provide her motherly comfort in private, he gently pushed the door back open and stepped in, closing it quietly behind him. The main light was off, leaving only the area around Finn glowing with soft lamplight from his nightstand. He was sitting up in bed, covered from the waist down by the thin white knit blanket. Carole was in the chair beside him, gently running her fingers through his hair.

He grinned goofily at Kurt as he slowly walked farther in. "_Hey_, baby." His eyes were half-closed, but his weirdo smirk was a sure tell of the drugs in his system. "Why don't you put on one of these gowns and spin for me."

"Oh wow." Kurt had underestimated the painkillers in Finn. They were strong little bitches, weren't they?

"Finnegan Hudson!" Carole chastised, drawing her hand from his hair and smacking him lightly on the shoulder. It wasn't hard enough to hurt. Kurt would be surprised if it was even hard enough for him to feel at all. He had never seen anyone as pale with simultaneous bouts of horror, relief, and fury as he had when she first rushed into the hospital with Burt.

"Sorry, Mom." Finn didn't look sorry at all. In fact, he was still cocking an eyebrow at Kurt like he had all of his favorite junk foods taped to his body. "My boyfriend's hotter than yours. Can't stop his hotness."

Kurt blushed, but fixed him with a half-smile when he reached the bed and rested a hand on his calf. The blanket was rough under his palm. He shot a frown down at it. He needed to arrange for better covers, not that Finn seemed to notice that the quality was below par. He was still smiling with big dimples and heavy lidded eyes.

Carole fluffed the pillow propped behind her son and shook her head, feigning as much disapproval as she could to hide the rage of emotions still coursing through her. Kurt had no doubt that if she had five minutes in a room with their attackers that she would come out without a scratch but covered in jock blood.

"Finn, Burt is my husband not my _boyfriend_." She reminded his groggy, drug addled brain.

He was still looking at Kurt, and all of the undivided attention was starting to make him self-conscious. "When I move to New York with Kurt next year, I'll marry him. It's like a law there, Mom. They have to let us. And then he'll be my husband too. And one day we'll have husband babies. I'm not sure how that works. We'll probably need a woman, but don't worry. We won't ask you, Mom. I don't want a daughter-sister. But maybe Rachel could have our husband babies! She'll be in New York too. Doing stage stuff with Kurt and singing. Super awesome future stuff in New York."

Kurt gaped at him. Finn looked absolutely thrilled with his line of thought, but Kurt called on all of his strength to store it away in the 'Stuff Finn Says While High That Doesn't Count' drawer that he created after the time Finn smoked a joint with Puck and giggled at Kurt that his ass was way cooler than Rachel's boobs. One, Finn needed to be coherent for something he said to mean anything. And two, Rachel was an A-cup. His ass had bigger competition.

Still, he couldn't help the part of his heart that swam and expanded at hearing Finn talk about marrying him one day like it was the most natural thing in the world. Kurt didn't know about the paperwork and vows, but if they got past all of this he was going to shoot as hard as he could for forever with Finn. Nothing like a confrontation with Death to make him realize exactly how much the people he loved meant to him.

He completely ignored the part where Finn wasn't moving with him to New York next year and was going to school here in Ohio. That was a problem for next year, and was only further proof that he needed to put Finn's blabbering into that drawer and let it go. And as a side, hell would freeze over and shoot love notes out of volcanoes the day he let Rachel step in as their surrogate. He would rather adopt that creepy kid from _Poltergeist_.

While Carole was rummaging in her purse and shaking her head at her delirious son, Kurt stepped forward and took Finn's hand, mouthing silently, 'I love you.'

Finn's lopsided smile grew but his eyes nearly closed altogether they were so heavy. "I love you too, babe!" He exclaimed happily, loud and oblivious.

So much for a silent exchange. Kurt blinked against his volume and Carole whipped around startled and looked between them. Kurt half-shrugged. It wasn't anything she hadn't heard before, but it was still kind of embarrassing. She smiled and went back to her purse, pulling her phone out and skimming through her messages.

Kurt leaned forward and whispered inches away from Finn's face. "You are a terrible patient. A couple of pills and you lose all control of your senses."

"I love you so much, Kurt. I knew you would save me." Finn squinted at him seriously, and his sudden earnestness caught Kurt off guard. He leaned forward and pecked his lips, unwilling to do more with Carole in the room. It was impossibly difficult to keep from falling back into sobs thinking about how close he got to losing Finn and losing him in a horrific, unimaginable way. Finn was smiling again after the short kiss though, so Kurt decided to take five and come back when he wasn't so close to a major meltdown.

"I'm going to freshen up, and I'll be back, okay?" He whispered, waiting for Finn to nod to give him control of his exit. It wouldn't do to fall apart again while Finn was feeling okay. He went through enough trauma for one day, but if he asked him to stay, he would. He just leaned back against the bed though and yawned. He would probably be asleep by the time Kurt returned.

Holding a hand up to Carole he indicated he would only be gone for five minutes and closed the door behind him to keep the bright hospital hallway lights out of the room. He was fixing to pull his phone out to check on Rachel again-they couldn't be too careful since her turn was up-but a figure approaching the room caught his attention.

He looked up, mouth dropping open in shock. There was Karofsky, eyes darting around nervously as he made his way over. Kurt straightened his back despite the instant pounding in his chest, and he walked a few paces down from Finn's room to keep Karofsky from getting there. There was no way he was letting Karofsky frighten Finn any more than he already had. If it had been Kurt shoved in that furnace he would be rocking in a corner right now, mumbling incoherently and ripping out his hair. Finn did not need any added stress. In fact, if he could signal security without alarming Finn or Carole he could have him arrested on the spot.

"What do you think you're doing here?" Kurt asked when he was within a few feet. Karofsky wisely stopped. Kurt breathed deeply through his nose and glared at him, blood heating up and quickening his pulse. "You're a special kind of stupid for coming here. Your buddies are all locked up, just so you know. Fair bit of advice, I wouldn't drop the soap when they throw you in there with them. I suspect one or more of you are aggressive closet cases. Jail will be like an all-you-can-eat testosterone bordello to you brainless cavemen."

Karofsky scowled and screwed up his face. Kurt didn't think he got most of that. Brainless indeed.

"Look, I just came here to see how Hudson was. He was acting like his hand hurt when I took off. I don't know, it looked bad in that oven for a second." He was still glaring, but Kurt could tell it was a front for how freaked out he was and shook his head in disgust.

Poor Karofsky, _so misunderstood_. Closet case or not, there was no excuse for his behavior. Struggling with his own identity did not excuse his hatred, pave a road to forgiveness for his behavior, or make him any more or less horrible than his ignorant comrades.

"It looked bad there for a second?" Kurt stepped toward him, forgetting about the weight and height advantage Karofsky had on him. His short fingernails dug into his palms as he fisted them at his sides. "You almost killed him!"

Karofsky looked shaken, eyes growing wide. "No way, man. That's not what we were trying to do!" He said angrily. "That crematorium hasn't worked in years! My uncle has a new place. That place is dead! There's no way it could have turned on! I wouldn't _kill_ him!"

Kurt just glowered.

Karofsky looked a little panicked now. With his friends arrested, he was probably starting to get the big picture there, and that picture held a lot more consequences than a trip to Figgins' office.

"I'm telling you it couldn't have turned on by itself like that! It had to be… I mean, it must have been…"

Kurt glared.

"Look, man, you were right! About Death or whatever. About it coming back for us. You're a fucking freak and a psycho, but that has to be it. Something else did it!"

Sure, he was ready to believe him now that he needed something else to pawn the blame off on. Good luck pointing the finger at the Grim Reaper in court.

"Oh no fucking way!" An angry growl came from the other end of the hall.

Kurt turned to see Puck staring daggers into Karofsky. Impeccable timing. Some of the tension in Kurt relaxed. He couldn't take Karofsky, but Puck could. He could do it on adrenaline and rage alone. He would keep him away from Finn. When he called him earlier to tell him about Finn, he shouted such a long string of cuss words into the line that Kurt had to wonder what the people near him thought. Several death threats, swears, and unintelligible noises later, he said he was coming to the hospital and hung up. Well, there he was in all his fury. He covered the space between them quickly.

"You think you're tough shit, huh, Karofsky?" Puck stepped up to Kurt, and he took careful steps to the side. If they went at it he didn't want to get caught in the middle.

Karofsky held his hands up to ward off the wall of aggression coming his way. "Look, man-"

Apparently, surrender wasn't an option, because Puck didn't care much for whatever he had to say. Swinging his arm out faster than Kurt could track, he landed a punch across Karofsky's nose and sent him side-stepping unsteadily.

"You like shoving people in trunks? How 'bout I shove you in mine in pieces?" Puck shouted.

Kurt's eyes widened in alarm. If Puck got himself arrested and they stuck them all in the same holding cell it was going to be a blood bath. Going off the crazed-with-anger look in Puck's eyes, Kurt wasn't sure if their numbers would help the jocks.

"Oh! What's going on here?"

Kurt was never so relieved to hear the sound of his father's voice. That was until he turned around and saw the look of recognition click in Burt's eyes as they landed on Karofsky. Suddenly, his relief melted into an anxious pit in his stomach. He hurried back over to Puck's side to put himself between his father and Karofsky. Puck getting arrested was routine, but his father did not need that smear.

"Whoa, Dad, let's just get security." Kurt held his hands up, but as his father stepped closer his eyes were trained solely on Karofsky and he didn't even seem to hear him.

"You." He pointed a stiff finger at him, voice leveled with controlled rage. "You put my boy in a trunk and tried to kill my stepson."

"Dad…"

Puck was looking between Burt and Karofsky now, arms raised slightly at his sides, jaw tense and eyes excited. If Kurt was looking for help, it wouldn't come from his direction. Puck wanted a fight and the idea of tag-teaming with Mr. Hummel only seemed to rile him up more.

"You put your hands on _my_ kid and tied him up." The look in Burt's eyes was chilling.

"I wasn't…" Karofsky sputtered stupidly. "I didn't want to kill them."

Burt laughed and Kurt flinched at the sharp sound of it.

"No, you just wanted to teach them a lesson, right? You wanted to teach my boy a lesson about being a decent human being. Because being gay makes him less than you. Because being gay gives you the right to rough him up and show him _what a man you are!_" He caught Karofsky by the collar and shoved him back, knocking him into the wall with a loud thud. A nurse down the hall looked over. With an uneasy frown, she turned and hurried off.

"Oh hell." Kurt hadn't wanted to involve the Hudsons, but if this escalated they would have bigger problems than being rattled. "Carole!" He shouted down the hall. He grabbed his father's arm and tugged, knowing that hanging onto his elbow was the only thing holding him back from taking a swing at Karofsky.

His stepmom popped her head out of Finn's room and after looking justifiably shocked by the image of her husband holding a teenager against the wall, she hurried out. Burt was shaking Karofsky and Puck was shoving his side when he got an opening. Kurt tugged on his father, feeling very much like he was trying to pry two Rottweilers away from a cat.

"Burt!" Carole reached them and grabbed his other arm. She threw a deadly parental glare at Puck when he tried to reach out and smack Karofsky's head. Years of reacting to Carole's scolds sent his hand instinctively back to his side. "Kurt, get security!"

She didn't have to tell him twice. Hurrying down the hall, he grabbed his chest with relief when he spotted a uniformed man down the hall with another nurse.

"Help! Hey!" He ran up to him. "The guy who attacked me and my boyfriend is here, and my dad's going to kill him if he can!" Maybe he shouldn't have added that, true as it was. They could force him to repeat it in court. Actually, screw that. He would sooner perjure himself than say something that might hurt his dad.

The security guard didn't need any prompting, and he didn't have one of those big beer guts that always made Kurt stare at security guards and wonder about their actual usefulness. Before he could start sending prayers to Lady Gaga, the big man was hauling his father off of Karofsky, a task made difficult by Burt's manic hold on him.

"You know how long people go away for attempted murder, tough guy?" He bellowed as the security guard finally pushed him back. Karofsky looked absolutely horrified. "My boy didn't do anything to you! You remember that when you're living the worst hell of your life. You remember that you didn't have to be there!"

"Dad…" Kurt's eyes filled with tears as he absorbed his father, shaking with anger. His heart didn't need all of this stress. Fuck Karofsky to _life _in prison if anything happened to his dad because of this. Burt breathed heavily and turned away at last, tearing his eyes away from Karofsky and pacing back toward Finn's room slowly. Carole's hand went to his back but she turned around to collect Puck, remembering her son's best friend and his tendency for trouble.

The security guard had a grip on Karofsky's arm but looked relieved when a uniformed policeman rounded the corner in their direction. That must have been where the nurse who first spotted them went. Bless her.

Karofsky's eyes got huge when he saw the policeman. He didn't fight the guard holding him, but he seemed to shrink in on himself.

"I… It was just a joke. I wasn't trying to-," his words came to an abrupt stop as Carole reached out and slapped him with an unforgiving swing of her arm.

'A joke'… Kurt shook his head slowly. He stayed standing there, staring at Karofsky as Carole turned around with Puck in tow and walked away toward Burt. Karofsky met his eyes as the policeman took him from the hospital security guard.

Kurt fixed him with a stony expression. "Heads up, Karofsky. There are only four of us left, and then you're next."

He didn't know if he would understand, but the color flooded from his face and he knew that he did. He thought a lot of things about Kurt, but now he believed him. They might have been total opposites, but they were on the same list. Kurt didn't think he would stress over his end of it quite as much as the other. With deadened eyes, he turned on his heel and walked away. 


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** Thanks for all of the reviews, favorites, alerts! I love hearing what you guys think. :D

**Chapter Nine**

The door to their parents' room barely clicked closed down the hall before Kurt slid out of his and across the hallway. He was careful to be silent as he let himself into Finn's room. Finn was tucked away in bed with the lamp off, but Carole had left him with his PSP. The glow of the small screen lit up his face. His smile was sleepy and his eyes were all but closed. Even though he slept at the hospital on and off while the doctors continually woke him up on the hour to monitor his concussion, Kurt didn't doubt that he would sleep through the night now that he was given the clear.

"Can I sleep here?" He whispered.

"Of course." Finn pulled at his blankets and Kurt went to help him.

Sliding under the covers, he wiggled over to Finn's side, thankful when Finn set aside his game and laid down. He pulled Kurt onto his chest, and Kurt pressed his cheek into his t-shirt as he snuggled in. He ran his fingers over and over the contours of Finn's chest, resting his ear over his heartbeat and letting the even beat soothe him.

"I'm sorry." He murmured.

Finn pulled his head back to look down at him. "For what?"

"I knew something was coming, and I still couldn't protect you from it." Kurt heard his own heartbeat loud in his ears as he clung to Finn's calmly breathing body, pounding like an angry ocean against a quiet shore.

"What are you talking about, Kurt? You saved me." He sounded genuinely confused, not a new state for Finn but misplaced there.

Kurt rubbed the pad of his thumb across his toned chest, thanking God or the universe or whatever, that it wasn't currently covered in burns or worse. He could hardly get the words out. "Yeah, but you never should have been in that furnace."

There was a slight edge to Finn's response. "No, and that's on Karofsky, Azimio, Travis, Manny and Marcus. You don't have anything to do with it."

Kurt swallowed. "In the parking lot before we were taken I saw a flash of a fire and that brick I used that I found at the crematorium. I had that dream, and I couldn't put any of it together in time to keep you safe."

"I am safe." Finn insisted.

Kurt began to tremble, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to force the image of Finn in that furnace out of his mind. "I didn't do anything to stop them."

"What could you do?"

"I let them put you in there."

"_Let? _They had, like, five hundred pounds on you…"

"You were going to die, Finn. You were going to die right in front of me, and all I could do was let it happen."

"What is all this 'let' stuff about?" Finn's arm around him tightened. "If you could have put the beat-down on them, you would have."

"But that's just it. I couldn't do anything. I'm useless to you." Kurt was getting hysterical as he tilted his head and blinked up at Finn. He couldn't help it. The sound of Finn shrieking in pain and terror hadn't left the back of his mind since that afternoon. He had all of the signs and it still wasn't enough to keep Finn from experiencing that. What the hell good were the signs if he couldn't protect his friends from facing something as horrific as that? "You should be with someone bigger who can kick ass when you need it."

That, apparently, was Finn's breaking point. "Kurt." He said firmly in exasperation and cupped his face. "I _like_ taking care of you. But this time, you did take care of me. I would have died in that thing without you there looking out for me. I don't need you to kick ass. You're smart, and you figured it out. If it were you in there you would have died, because I'm as big and stupid as Karofsky and would have just stood there pulling on that lock instead of looking around for something to smash it with."

Kurt frowned but calmed down at Finn's earnestness. "You're not stupid." He gave him a pointed look. "And you're definitely not as stupid as Karofsky."

Finn leaned down and kissed him briefly. "You saved me, Kurt. And that's what matters."

Kurt slid his arm up on Finn's chest and rested his hand on his shoulder as he settled back in. He felt the hard square of his phone in his pajama pocket. If the ring didn't wake him, the vibrating would, and he couldn't afford to miss a call if it was Rachel. Besides, if he had a dream about her he wanted to have his phone at hand to give her the immediate heads up. If he could just repeat this saving thing a few more times, he might actually make it to June without his hair going white. Anderson Cooper was sexy, he supposed, but the color would totally wash him out. He carried the light worry with him into sleep and only woke up occasionally when Finn's arms wound around him too tightly. He rubbed his shoulders soothingly until the tight expressions from his nightmares relaxed.

When Carole came in to check on Finn that morning, she was carrying two hot chocolates for them. Kurt sat up sheepishly. Maybe he wasn't as sneaky as he thought. 

* * *

><p>That afternoon Kurt found himself at the Berry home with Rachel, her dads, Finn, Puck, and Mr. Schuester. He sat outside beside Rachel, holding her hand in his as they sat on one of the benches that wrapped around the interior of the picturesque gazebo that her dads installed in the back yard. Kurt would have called it tacky if it wasn't so precious and surrounded by gardening that would rival Martha Stewart.<p>

He and Rachel watched as Finn threw the ball, protectively holding his hurt hand against his stomach and not playing with it. He fumbled the ball every time it came at him, but that didn't seem to take the fun out of it for him. He was in a white t-shirt with a black and white image of a band Kurt didn't recognize printed on the front. His jeans were tighter than usual, because they were a few years old and Finn was outgrowing them. They had holes in the knees and were faded, but despite how old and beat up they were, Kurt had to keep his eyes traveling around to keep himself from getting too worked up at the sight of him in the flattering outfit. He looked good enough to eat.

But Rachel was the one who needed his full attention. She was in a pink mini-dress with an itty bitty teddy bear pattern that was equally ridiculous and childish. She bounced beside him, watching the game avidly as Schuester ran backward and caught the football out of the air. Under his mother's orders, Finn wasn't running around. He didn't sustain any brain damage, but Carole would give him hell if she found out he was playing hardcore tackle football a day after he almost died. Schuester ran with the ball while one of her dads chased after him, and her other one stood next to the gazebo clapping.

"Get him, Daddy!" She released Kurt's hand and leaned forward screaming.

Kurt tapped her leg as her knees fell open in her excitement, and she obligingly glanced down at his legs and mimicked the crossing. He would teach her how to be a lady yet. Her dad did get the ball but Puck was quick to steal it back. Puck's presence was interesting. He was already there when he and Finn drove up, his truck sitting in the driveway like it was the most natural place in the world for it to be.

He nudged her and arched a nosy eyebrow. "What's going on with you and Puckerman?"

She didn't look nearly as deliciously guilty as he had hoped. She only frowned sadly and glanced out at the Mohawked boy playing around in her back yard.

"Nothing." Her eyes followed him forlornly. "He's sad about Lauren. Really, really sad."

Kurt felt abruptly stupid and callous for suggesting he had moved on from his late girlfriend so quickly. He adjusted his vest and squared his shoulders so Rachel wouldn't notice his guilty blush. He always knew Puck and Rachel shared an odd common bond that came from being Jewish and dating briefly a long time ago. He looked out for her, and she tolerated him. If he was opening up to her about his grief, their loose common ground must have blossomed into a full-fledged friendship. Kurt was glad for both of them. Puck wasn't talking to Finn about it, but if it was a feminine ear he needed then it was all the same.

Rachel turned to him. "He's been going to temple with Dad, Daddy, and me. Sometimes we pray, and sometimes we work on songs. When he got the call about Finn yesterday he made me swear that I would stay here with my dads and Mr. Schuester even though I wanted to come with him to the hospital." So he was over here yesterday too. "He doesn't want to believe all of this stuff with your premonitions, but he's afraid that something will happen to me since my time is up."

She sounded amazingly cavalier about it considering all of the horrible things that had befallen them so far. Rachel was a monster-sized drama queen. Kurt expected weeping, yelling, speeches, skits, but she just sat there cool and collected.

"Mr. Schuester is scared too. My dads believe you by the way." She told Kurt abruptly. "Grandma Brody used to have visions of natural disasters. Daddy says she even dreamt about his perm before he got it in the eighties."

Kurt blinked at her.

"That's why they're letting Mr. Schuester stay here. The more eyes on me the better. I suppose." She agreed tentatively. "Honestly, Kurt, I'm more afraid that if I somehow avoid what's coming it will start a new chain of events that might involve my fathers. Endangering them would be much worse than facing death myself, wouldn't it? My Broadway dreams aside, they weren't at the zoo that day. They're not supposed to die now, so what if I mess that up? I would rather go, Kurt."

He gaped at her, thoroughly taken aback. He had never heard anything so utterly selfless come out of her before. People could say what they wanted about Rachel, but she loved her family, that was for sure.

He grabbed her hand back up and held it between both of his. "Nothing is going to happen to you or to them. I'll make sure of it." He promised, and somehow he would keep it. 

* * *

><p>It was getting late, but Kurt was reluctant to go. He wanted to carry little Rachel off with him and stare at her the way he had Finn. The girl drove him insane, but she was his friend. Perhaps his best friend besides Mercedes, and as reluctant as he was to admit it, he loved her dearly. He had to keep her safe. Her parents seemed to understand his hesitation, because they invited him and the others to come in, urging Rachel to put a show on for them.<p>

She lit up like a bundle of lights on a Christmas tree, taking off to set up the karaoke machine on the stage down in the basement. He wondered how many karaoke bars they would attend when they moved to New York together next year to chase their dreams. He looked over at Finn grinning nastily with Puck as they looked down at his wounded hand with fascinated disgust at the island in the kitchen.

Kurt rolled his eyes. "Put the bandages back on."

He set his boyfriend with a sharp look, and Finn began redressing his hand thoroughly chastised. Kurt had the awful thought that he just reminded himself of Carole with the bossy order and even stare. Jeez. He was the boyfriend, not the mother. Still, though, he felt satisfied by how quickly Finn listened and obeyed. He wondered if that made him weird and controlling. Finn didn't seem to think so. He wandered over to Kurt in the doorway and snickered down at him, raising his hand to show him the bandage was in place.

"Yes, sir." He grinned mischievously.

"Shut up." Kurt struggled to keep his smile at bay, a task made harder by the happy smile on Finn's face as he ran his good hand down his side. But look at that, he listened again.

He noticed Puck off to the side looking at them without the usual scowl of disgust and apathy; this time his eyes were soft and dark. Like he was looking at them interact but remembering something else. Kurt thought about what Rachel said, and wondered how far gone Puck had been on Lauren. From the looks of it, she had a whip and a chain but didn't have to use either, because Puck was happy to trail after her of his own free will. Puck caught his eyes and looked away, rearranging his expression to reflect his normal annoyance.

"You two lovebirds done grossing me out?" He barked harmlessly as he walked past them out into the hall. "If we don't hurry, Berry will pick all the music herself and we'll be stuck listening to her sing show tunes for a full damn hour."

Kurt didn't see the harm in that but recognized Puck's attempt to restore order to the atmosphere. He didn't want his pity or his attention, so Kurt didn't give it to him. He slipped his hand in Finn's uninjured one and followed him to the basement door. At the top of the stairs, Finn slid his arm around his shoulders and pulled him close to kiss his head. Kurt inhaled his grassy boy scent contentedly. Alive and Coping Finn was definitely preferable to Next Finn, the boyfriend he might lose at any moment. Finn was clearly feeling the relief too, because his smile only disappeared for seconds at a time.

"Oh Lordy, I will never get used to that." Kurt made a face at the oil painting of Rachel fixed to the wall in the entranceway. Finn chuckled and kept a hand on his shoulder as he followed him down the stairs.

Rachel was squatting at the edge of the stage looking through the music catalogue with Mr. Schuester. He shook his head at one of her choices, and she pouted but conceded with a glint in her eye that suggested that their teacher only got one veto. Puck was already in one of the lounge seats sitting across from Rachel's dads on the short couch against the wall. He sneered and said something in Hebrew, leaning forward and slapping hands with the one sitting in front of him. The three of them laughed, and Kurt stared at them critically. Certainly comfy. He never would have pegged Puck as a favorite among parents, but he got along great with Carole and didn't seem to have any trouble with Rachel's dads. It seemed that his charisma extended beyond the ladies he wanted to bed when it suited him.

He walked over to the bar on the other side of the basement but before he could sit in one of the high seats, Finn grabbed his waist and lifted him up onto the bar. Kurt's eyes widened on him in surprise, but Finn just took the chair he had gone for and wrapped an arm around his back.

"You think she'll be okay?" Finn asked, looking over at Rachel and Schue untangle the wires to the karaoke machine. He nodded, answering himself. "She'll be okay."

Kurt ran his fingers through Finn's hair and swung his legs a little. There was no use putting more pressure on himself, though, so he stayed quiet.

"I'm starting with Barbra!" Rachel announced, still squatting next to the tangled mess.

"What did I tell you!" Puck leaned over the back of his chair and called to Finn and Kurt. Finn pouted, but Kurt raised his chin and looked away. He had no problem with Barbra.

One of her dads got up and busied himself around the bar and mini-fridge before carrying a tray with a pitcher of water and a glass over to his daughter. He set it down on the little round table next to Schue, addressing Rachel.

"Sweetheart, drink a glass before you start. You were in the sun too long, and I don't want your skin getting all dry from dehydration." Her fussier father advised, and Kurt nodded his approval. In fact, he had some great skin creams he could offer her too. If he went home and got it, it would be a good excuse for him to come by again tomorrow. Though, at this point, he was ready to just plant his hands on his hips and stop making excuses for the giant psychic elephant in the room. If he needed to check on her, that was that.

"Okay, Dad." She agreed, standing up as Mr. Schuester unraveled the last bit of knotted wires.

"Yeah, Rach." Puck got up and sauntered over. "And while you're getting your H2O on, how bout I pick out some real music. Finn and I will duet some good time Skynyrd."

"Yeah!" Finn enthused, clapping and hissing as soon as he slapped his blistered hand with his good one. Kurt crooked an eyebrow wryly. He could always sing the Scarecrow's song from _Wizard of Oz_.

Mr. Schuester flipped the machine on, and Rachel grabbed one of the pink rhinestone studded microphones.

"I don't think so, Noah." Rachel dismissed him. "I think everyone's in a _Yentl_ mood."

Kurt snorted and dropped his hand to Finn's shoulder. A static shock jolted him, and he flinched, pulling his hand away. He looked down, and a tiny, thin bolt of lightning zapped and crackled between Finn's collar and his finger. His eyes widened.

Groaning, Puck threw his hands up. "Woman, you need to learn to mix it-" His sneaker caught on the floor, and he tripped, losing his balance and falling forward. He grabbed for the table, knocking it over with his weight as he went down. The tray on top slid, and the pitcher teetered over.

Kurt's heart thudded, and his head flew in their direction. "Rachel!"

Water flew out over the wires, and the microphone fell from Rachel's hand as Mr. Schuester grabbed and pulled her down in a messy tackle. A cut along the side of one of the cords stripped the protective covering back, revealing the raw wiring inside, and the second the water hit it, a sharp metallic zap pinged through the air. Sparks sputtered out, and the soaked cords zinged and smoked.

Rachel stared over at the crackling mess as it hissed and popped, knocked on her back and tangled with Mr. Schuester.

"Fuck!" Puck ducked from the high erratic sparks, sprawled on the floor behind the flipped table.

A flame ignited in the middle of the wires, hissing up with a billowy whistle. Finn jumped to his feet, knocked his chair over and yanked Kurt down from the bar. The fire flickered upward in a burst of life and shot down the stage in a thick line. Her dads were yelling, and Rachel released a long piercing scream as the fire zigzagged toward her. She was cut off mid-shriek as Puck scrambled to his feet, grabbed her wrist with no amount of delicacy and nearly yanked her arm out of its socket, he pulled her out of the way so quickly. She fell off the stage, slamming into him and stumbling back, falling to the floor in a heap. Mr. Schuester clambered backward out of the way, pressing his back against the wall on the other side of the stage.

Rachel's football playing dad ran over with the fire extinguisher from under the bar and let loose a stream of white frost. It shot over the flames and killed them instantly. They cowered and fell flat under the spray, but he kept firing it out, paying extra attention to the roll of burned wires.

Kurt's feet were scraping under him off balance as he stared over at them and barely began to register Finn dragging him backward. They were already at the stairs when Finn's back hit the basement's far wall and he dug his fingers into his arm. Kurt panted and let Finn keep him there, unsure whether he would be able to pull free of his tight grip whether he tried to or not.

His eyes twitched and he met Rachel's gaze. Puck was pulling her to her feet much more gently than he had hauled her off of the stage, and they were both staring over at Kurt in stunned disbelief.

"Sweetheart?" Her dad was looking horrified between her and the tipped over pitcher of water that he brought over that started it all. He pulled her away from Puck and swallowed her in a tight embrace. She turned her face, but didn't seem to be in control of her other parts, standing stock still and letting him crush her in a hug.

"To die while singing," she mumbled through numb lips. "Would have been…fitting. Poetic even."

An unexpected burst of laughter launched out of Kurt, and he let the fit overtake him despite the weary looks he was getting. It was a good thing Finn had a grip on him, because his knees went weak and he sagged against him and the wall. The drama of her near brush with death gave her big dark eyes a sheen of excitement underneath the shock. Like autobiographical lyrics were writing themselves behind her eyes. He drew in quick breaths between his laughter. Only Rachel Berry. 


	10. Chapter 10

**Spoilers: ***Slight spoilers for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this chapter!***  
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**Chapter Ten**

Dragging the mouse across Jacob Ben Israel's YouTube Channel, he pressed play on the featured video for the third time since he snuck downstairs before sunrise. Like every time before, Kurt saw himself at the zoo outside of the aquarium, hysterical and crying. There were blurry jostles after Puck slapped the camera away, but Kurt's eyes watered when it was over. His friends were all dying during the recording of that video. He dragged the mouse back to the play button, but right after he clicked it, a hand reached down and closed his laptop.

He looked up and squinted in the darkness toward Finn's frowning face. He hadn't been able to sleep well after getting home from Rachel's house. He tried to reach Quinn repeatedly, but she wasn't taking his calls. She needed to. Her thoughts on him or his precognitive abilities aside, she needed to take his calls.

He spent the night tossing and turning so much on his side of the bed that Finn repeatedly mumbled himself awake, scooped Kurt up and dragged him back on top of him. Each time was the same. He never whined or complained, shoved him off the bed or got up to go back to his own. He just hummed, surprised to be awake again, reached for Kurt and settled him down. Again and again. At five in the morning, Kurt got up as carefully as possible, grabbed his laptop and went downstairs. One of them should have been able to sleep.

The sun was still down, and the curtains were drawn with the lights off so the living room was a quiet black hole with his laptop shut. Finn sat down next to him on the couch and stretched his arm around his shoulders blindly. He leaned into him and rested his head over his.

"Why are you watching that?" He whispered, and Kurt closed his eyes.

"Sweetie, you should go back to sleep. There's no reason for both of us to walk around like zombies tomorrow." He urged, rubbing the thin material of Finn's pajama pants. He was sweet to get up and look for him even after he spent the night jostling him awake. In fact, Finn was too sweet for his own good. He needed to take a page out of Kurt's self-serving book and treat himself to a drama-free REM cycle.

"I brushed my teeth. I'm up." And it was that simple to Finn. "Why are you watching that? Don't tell me you have a crush on Jacob Ben Israel. I might have to barf."

Kurt wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Gross. No, I do not. Nor could I, or any other earthbound species, ever."

"Good. Cause I'd hate to have to kick his ass. He's kind of scrawny." Finn yawned and draped even more of his tired weight on Kurt. "Let's go back to bed. And you can drool over his Jew fro in the morning."

It was hard to tell sometimes when Finn was being purposefully obtuse and when he genuinely didn't understand something. This time, though, catching him watch the video of his meltdown at the zoo, Kurt had a pretty good idea that Finn was just trying not to push. Teasing was a much easier way to lend support.

Kurt dropped his head against his shoulder in the darkness, marveling at how different it felt not to be able to see anything when he wasn't crammed into a tight space against his will. Being trapped in the trunk had been terrifying. At home, the darkness was peaceful and calming. He was glad there was no light for Finn to see his eyes sparkling with tears over the video. The video with over a million hits thanks to CNN's interest in the sensational story. Not to mention the puff pieces on the local news. Kurt would be lucky if he made it out of Lima and wasn't recognized as that Freak From The Zoo. New York might spit him right back out and leave him lost.

Kurt teased him back after his request. "So much for you brushing your teeth and being up."

Finn rubbed his arm, shifting on the couch. "Yeah, well, I mostly just did it so I could do this."

Reaching out in the darkness, he cupped Kurt's face and leaned in, pressing their lips together with more vigor than his normally low morning energy allowed. Kurt melted into it, happy to sit back and let Finn do the work. His eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness, and Finn's outline was a dull focus point when he pulled back. Kurt's fingers ran up and down is forearm, and Finn leaned his head toward him seriously.

"But since I see how upset you are, I'd rather you just tell me why you were watching that video." He called him out, and Kurt dropped his weight back against the couch. If Finn was blind he would still be able to reach out with his gentle giant feelers and tell when someone was distressed, though it wasn't like that was a surprising mode for any of them lately.

The time for hiding was over, and Kurt leaned over the arm of the couch and flicked on the little lamp beside it. The coming dawn kept the room shadowed and tranquilly dim, but they could at least see each other now.

Kurt swallowed and dropped his eyes to the computer on his lap. "I could have saved them. If I took a breath and thought clearly for five seconds I could have convinced them not to go down there."

"Kurt, you _have to _stop." Finn insisted, grabbing his chin and turning his face toward him. His eyes were soft and sad, empathy that Kurt didn't think he really deserved. He had the opportunity to save their friends and the other people who went down into the aquarium that day, and he blew it. "I would have done way worse. I probably would have been like Brittany if I saw the shit you saw and just ran screaming off of the bridge."

Kurt scoffed and leaned forward, setting the laptop down on the coffee table in front of them. "No, Finn. _You_ need to stop saying things like that. That you would have done worse or wouldn't have handled it as well. Everyone in Glee Club has always looked to you for guidance. You're the natural leader. All I would have had to do was think for a second and I would have remembered that. I could have taken you aside and asked you to please just do me that favor and get everyone to listen. They would have grumbled, but if you had said to get off they would have."

"I guess there's no way we'll ever know." Finn's hand caught his chin and turned his face back again when he looked obstinately away. "You did the best you could in the time you had. You saved a lot of us that day, and you're still dealing with everything that happened while trying to keep saving us. You said you might believe in God now?"

Kurt raised his lowered eyes to him warily, surprised by the sudden change of subject. He nodded minutely.

Finn reached down and covered his hand with his larger one. "Maybe we weren't supposed to die. Maybe it was _God's_ design that got messed up and not this Death thing. So He like picked someone to see the glitch or whatever and fix it. He picked you, Kurt. Not me, not Mr. Schuester, even though he's older and literally could have just ordered us all off of the bridge. He picked you, and I gotta believe that was for a reason. You gotta start believing that too. Trust yourself, Kurt. I do."

For the umpteenth time in the last few weeks, Kurt felt like a blubbering little girl. His eyes welled up quickly and sent fat streaks down his cheeks. Finn's faith in him was really sweet and possibly entirely misplaced, but there it was. And he was right. If he was going to get the last of them through this, he needed to put his doubts aside and own this 'gift' or 'curse' or whatever horrible thing it was and use it to their advantage. He couldn't change the past, but it seemed that he could rework the present and alter their futures.

"Thanks, sweetie."

Finn thumbed away his tears with a grin, satisfaction written all over his face at getting him to see it his way. Kurt laughed airily at his smugness.

"There's actually something else I've been wanting to talk to you about too." Finn said.

Kurt wiped at his own eyes, dabbing his cheeks with his long sleeved pajama cuff. "Oh?"

"Yeah." Finn cleared his throat a little nervously. "I've been thinking."

Kurt was still wrapped in his own thoughts, but now that he was feeling a little better, he patted Finn's thigh distractedly in response. "Don't hurt yourself." He joked.

Finn reached down and grabbed his hand. "I'm serious." He said, and he definitely sounded like it. Kurt turned to him as he brushed the last of the dampness from his cheeks. "I think I should go with you to New York."

Kurt froze. Finn stared at him. After a moment, he asked monotonously. "What?"

Finn fidgeted, uncharacteristically uneasy with him. "I know there's no way I could get in to where you're going, but I could go to community college and get a job so we could get an apartment and keep living together. I don't know. We'll figure all that out, but I don't want you to leave me behind."

Kurt's heart shrank in on itself painfully. With all of the stress of recent events, Kurt's looming departure date was clearly adding to Finn's feelings of helplessness. He threaded their fingers together and squeezed the hand holding his affectionately. "Finn, honey, you know it wouldn't be like that."

They hadn't had an in-depth discussion about it yet, the ins and outs, rules and scheduling issues of maintaining a long-distance relationship. Neither of them had wanted to think about it too much. Honestly, the idea of being away from Finn for a few days was a struggle. To be away from him for entire weeks or months at a time made Kurt feel sick to his stomach with despair. The only reason Kurt hadn't broken down and begged Finn to go with him was because Finn had a game plan here in Ohio and he didn't want to be the one to screw that up and be resented by Finn later on.

"I know." Finn agreed half-heartedly. "But long distance would, like, kill me. I don't want to be without you. I don't want you to find someone else. I don't wanna go to the dark side and moon after you forever."

Kurt blinked thickly with a tiny shake of his head. "You're losing me."

Finn shrugged. "You know, like Snape in that Deadly Hallows movie. You're my Lily, and I don't want you making Harry Potter babies with some other person."

Kurt openly gaped. Finn still hadn't read Harry Potter. If it didn't come with pictures, panels, heroes in tights and villains with maniacal laughs, odds were, he never would read it. But he had watched all of the movies, and Kurt felt like a horribly infatuated tween girl for hearing that comparison come out of his boyfriend's mouth and having his heart flutter and take off like he had been on the treadmill for an hour.

"I'm your Lily?" The question left his lips quietly under big, round watchful eyes.

"Well, yeah, Kurt." Finn smiled sheepishly and leaned forward, teasing him with the movie quote that Kurt obsessively swooned over for a week after they saw it. "Always."

Finn's lips were curling in a playful smile, but any chuckles that might have come with it were ground out as Kurt jumped him. Careful to avoid his bandaged hand, he clamped his legs around his lap and kissed him so hard that Finn's head dropped to the back of the couch and his eyebrows shot up in shock. He wasn't complaining though. After a second of surprise passed, his hand shot up and grabbed Kurt's butt, squeezing him through his pajama pants and anchoring him down against him.

"Mmm, I love you." Kurt mumbled lazily between kisses.

"Yeah?" Finn panted, leaving his hurt hand limp but bringing the arm around Kurt's back and holding him close.

Kurt pressed against him, tongue sliding out and running across his bottom lip. His mind was a hazy mess of Finn, and the cloudy tunnel vision was a massive relief on his overworked nerves.

"Of course…I want you," he groaned and tilted his head, kissing him harder, "to come with…me to…New York."

Those seemed to be the magic words. A deep growl reverberated through Finn's chest, and Kurt was suddenly on his back with Finn pressing him down into the cushions. His legs locked around him, and his arms encircled his neck, letting Finn take over. His lips trailed down the line of his jaw, to his throat and over his collarbone. One hand disappeared under his shirt, fingers gliding over his flat, if not exactly ripped, stomach. Finn's long fingers spread out and webbed over his soft skin, rubbing and touching everywhere that he could.

Kurt's eyes fluttered closed, and he moved his hands down to Finn's waist, slipping them both under his t-shirt and exploring his broad toned back. As always, as Finn grinded hard against him, he was ready before he was. But that wasn't going to be a problem, because Finn noticed it too. Without any finesse, he moved his hand from his stomach and shot it straight down his pants. Kurt gasped and arched, fingers curling and nails digging into his back as revenge. Finn only moaned happily and began moving over him as he got Kurt going.

Kurt was reaching the whiny stage that Finn seemed to love but always embarrassed him, mewling and rocking against Finn's hand, when a horrified bellow filled the silent house and nearly made Kurt jump out of his skin. His eyes went wide, and his head flipped to the side spotting his father in his bathrobe a few feet away. If there was any blood left anywhere else in his body it would have drained from his face. Unfortunately it was all down south, where Finn was still touching him, flinching over Kurt and staring at Burt in horror.

"Finn!" Kurt shoved at him. Was he next on the list? He couldn't think. Was this how he went? Busted by his dad with his boyfriend's hand down his pants? The horror of this humiliation felt like much worse than the other's faced.

Finn looked down, eyes widening even more as he saw and seemed to only realize then that he was still cupping him. With a gasp and a start, he pulled his hand back and shot up, scrambling off of Kurt and to the other side of the couch. Kurt did the same, reaching for a pillow and shoving it over his lap as his dad's head whipped between them, mouth open. Yeah, he was absolutely two seconds away from letting Death take him.

"I…We…!" Finn was so stiff, his shoulders were almost at his ears. Obviously, they messed around and had sex. They were together for a long time and teenage boys weren't exactly the demographic that campaigned for abstinence. Their father knew this. But knowing and seeing were two wildly different things, and for the first time since they started going out, their luck at keeping it out of sight ran out. "Because!"

"Finn, shut up!" Kurt snapped. Where was the Bermuda triangle again? He wondered if he could catapult himself into it from Lima, Ohio. At least his _problem_ was going away rapidly under his father's horrified stare. That was The Mood Killer, nothing else even compared.

"What do I always say?" Burt yelled as he was finally able to make words, cheeks reddening with scorching embarrassment and a mix of what might have been rage but could have just been an extreme case of trauma. Kurt could only imagine the horror of walking in on Carole with her hand anywhere near his father's waistband. And with that thought, he might actually be sick. "I don't care as long as you're safe and out of sight! Safe and _out of sight!_"

"I know." Kurt squirmed guiltily. God. If he thought _he_ was scarred for seeing them, Kurt thought he and Finn would be much worse off knowing that they were _seen_. Actually, Finn would bounce back faster. At least Carole wasn't with him when he walked in. Finn would probably be in a state of mute shock if his mother was down there. Then again, muteness might have been better.

"I'm moving to New York with Kurt!" Finn blurted.

_What? Why?_ Timing was not Finn's thing.

"Finn!" He exclaimed.

Burt did a double take on him, unsure whether he was deflecting or sincerely just frazzled enough to let slip random things.

"Oh no you're not." He said after a moment. He was working himself up too, Kurt realized unhappily. His dad was not happy about what he had seen, and if Finn was picking a fight he would take the bait. Though, of course, that wasn't what Finn was doing. He was just being Finn and panicking under pressure.

Finn seemed to get the floor under him a little better when he had something clear and nonsexual to focus on. His shoulders dropped a little bit of their aching stiffness. "Yeah, I am." He argued. "Me and Kurt are going to get an apartment together, and-And when you love somebody-"

Kurt's eyes grew huge. There were too many horrible ways that sentence could end. Problem now utterly taken care of, he threw the pillow at Finn's head and knocked him into silence. Standing quickly, he edged around the couch.

"Can we just go to bed? I'm really sorry, Dad. You will never, ever walk in on anything like that again." He was careful not to meet his eyes. Maybe if he was really careful, he would never have to look him in the eyes ever again for as long as he lived. "Finn." He urged, because the last thing he wanted was to leave him in there to say more stupid things to his dad and make everything much worse. Finn shot to his feet.

"Separate rooms!" Burt reasserted his parental control. "I'm checking!"

Kurt nodded rapidly and turned on his heel, hand clasped around Finn's wrist to tug him on.

"At least it wasn't my mom." Finn whispered on the stairs. "Then I might have to get mad at you for not letting me burn alive earlier."

Kurt scowled.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** So sorry for the ridiculous wait! December *completely* got away from me! The rest of this fic should flow much smoother. :S Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! Here's my contribution to the spookiness. :P**  
><strong>

**Chapter Ten**

Carole flicked one of the burners on the stove on, and Finn noticeably flinched. Kurt looked sideways at him where he sat beside him at the kitchen table. Finn's eyes were trained on the little flames under the skillet, shoulders tense as he stared at his mother prepare breakfast.

Judging by Carole's warm smiles and affectionate morning greeting, Kurt suspected his father hadn't told her about their awkward pre-dawn encounter. No need to scar her too. While Kurt was thankful for the reprieve, all of his concern shifted to Finn now as he stared blank faced at the harmless flames under the burner.

He thought about his reaction at Rachel's house. Kurt hadn't been much help himself. Everything happened so quickly that it felt like rapid dominos falling and all he could do was watch. He hadn't even noticed Finn dragging him away from the fire, but he thought about it now. How Finn's reaction had been to run. He loved Rachel, Kurt knew he did, not to mention Mr. Schuester and Puck. Besides him and Carole, he suspected the three of them would make his Top Three Favorite People list. So it wasn't a lack of love that played into his retreat. It had been the fire.

Kurt reached out and covered his hand with his on the table. Finn flinched but looked over and gave him a small smile. Kurt returned it. They were going to get through this.

"Carole?" Kurt turned back to his stepmother. She hummed over her shoulder to show she was listening. "Can I have a sleepover with some of the ladies tonight?"

Finn looked at him curiously. He hadn't shared his plan with him yet, because he wasn't sure if it would pan out. Carole didn't believe what he was experiencing was precognitive in nature and might have denied him the request if she saw through it as a way to keep a close eye on Quinn. If she vetoed him, though, he would just go to his dad. His faith in him would have to overrule any point Carole might try to make.

He didn't have to worry, though, because she only smiled over her shoulder and nodded. "Of course, sweetie. If anyone deserves some R&R, it's you kids."

Kurt smiled in satisfaction and sat back in his seat to start plotting out ways of getting the girls to agree. Mercedes was a no-brainer. She had his back no matter what. Rachel would too. She believed him and would want to help. Getting Quinn over would be tricky. She had never even been to his house before. They weren't especially friendly toward each other under normal circumstances. The few times he had been around her lately she had all but completely ignored him. He didn't think her hostility came from a place of old-school-Quinn bitchiness. He had a pretty good idea that it came from a place of fear and resistance. Who would want to believe that some great evil was trying to kill them and all of their friends? He would think of something, though.

"Morning, honey." Carole greeted Burt as he walked sleepily into the kitchen in a pair of a ratty jeans with a newspaper in his hands. He went over to kiss her cheek, and Kurt noted that he didn't look his or Finn's way. He blushed. He wondered how long it would take for him to not think about being caught with Finn's hand down his pants every time he saw his father. "Kurt's having a sleepover tonight with the girls."

Burt turned toward them then, whip fast and serious. He pointed the rolled up newspaper at Finn, expression dark and immoveable. "You're sleeping in your own room."

Finn's eyes got huge and he looked down at the table quickly. Kurt flushed deeply but stubbornly held on to Finn's hand. They couldn't get spooked out of every expression of PDA or they would jump out of their skin every time his dad saw Finn's arm around him.

"Just me and my girlfriends, Dad." Kurt promised.

Carole glanced between them distractedly as she cooked, eyes narrowed curiously as she absorbed the odd tension in the air. Burt harrumphed in a way that let Kurt know that he and the girls could count on several bed checks from his father that night.

* * *

><p>It took some conniving and strategizing but he finally worked it out. He didn't contact Quinn at all, instead having Mercedes do it. Quinn had a soft spot for Mercedes; the memory of being accepted and taken in by the Jones family when she was pregnant and kicked out of her own house guilt-tripped her into favors. Today was no exception. Mercedes called him after the deed was done and he hurriedly began getting ready for his guests.<p>

Kurt adjusted himself in front of the full length mirror on the inside of his closet door. His black military cut button-up was fitted to perfection, bless his tailor. Behind him, Finn was sitting on the edge of his bed, hunched over lazily. His posture really was disgraceful. Kurt wondered if there was still a charm school anywhere in the Ohio area. It would be worth his savings to get Finn to sit up straight and not use a fork in the peanut butter jar.

There probably wasn't anything he could do about the staring though. Finn's eyes were fixed on him as he got ready for the girls to arrive, his eyes getting puffy and glossed over the way they sometimes did before they started fooling around.

"Sweetie, stop looking at me like that." Kurt warned, catching his eye in the mirror. "Your eyes look like glazed donuts. The girls will be here any minute and when my dad gets home from work, he's going to make sure we don't get more than ten minutes alone together."

Finn smirked. "We could do a lot in ten minutes."

Kurt walked over and stood in front of him, kissing him thoroughly and maybe still battling the panic that came with almost losing him, because he pushed his shoulders until he fell back and went down with him. Finn moaned encouragingly, grabbing his hips and pulling him down. Kurt didn't even protest when Finn struggled against his tight jeans clumsily until he was able to force his hands into his tight back pockets. The girls would be there soon, so they couldn't get so lost in each other that they would repeat the horror of that morning with his father. Although, Finn could typically go from zero to a hundred in five seconds flat…and come back down to zero just as fast.

Finn's laughter surprised him and tickled his lips. Kurt pulled up, prepared to lay into him with his sassiest voice about what exactly was so funny, but the heartfelt smile on Finn's face brought him up short and made him weirdly shy. He glanced away and crossed his arms over Finn's chest, resting his chin on his hands.

"Yes?" He probed.

Finn freed his hands from Kurt's bear trap pockets and wrapped his arms around his middle tightly. The unexpected hug brought a soft smile to Kurt's lips. Whatever happened to the rest of them, however this thing ended, at least he had saved Finn.

"You're my best friend, Kurt." Finn's brow furrowed contemplatively. "It's, like, crazy how many different ways I love you."

_Oh, Finn._ Kurt leaned up and pecked his chin affectionately.

"We're going to make it to New York, babe." Finn vowed. The intensity in his eyes signaled one thing. Kurt's turn on this messed up death list was coming up, and Finn was aware of it. Kurt was actively not thinking about that. If he let the panic of what might happen take over he would succumb to it for sure. Finn leveled him with a serious gaze and his voice dropped an octave. "You don't have to be scared."

Kurt swallowed with difficulty, because it was too late for that.

Finn tilted his chin toward his chest to keep eye contact. "I'm going to save you. I promise."

Kurt's life was about as perfect as an eighteen year old openly gay boy living in conservative Ohio could get. Easily a thousand times better than he could have hoped for when he came into high school as the number one target for all things daft and belligerent. He hadn't expected to find someone to love him this soon. He hadn't expected to have the friends he did or gain the stronger relationship with his father that he had craved as a child. He hadn't counted on being this happy. Blinking against the sting in his eyes, he fought to keep his attitude up, cocking an eyebrow at Finn.

"You better."

Downstairs, the doorbell rang signaling the arrival of his sleepover pals. Reluctant to move off of Finn, Kurt pulled himself up over Finn's body until he could look straight down at him. When their lips collided it felt much more charged than their last kiss despite the slower pace and the leisurely tilt of his head. With Finn's promise sealed with a kiss, Kurt briefly cradled Finn's head and kissed his cheek before crawling off of him and straightening his clothes.

Finn pulled himself onto his side, leaning on his elbow, and Kurt looked back at him in the doorway. It wasn't so long ago that he was a loner outcast with an invisible 'freak' tattoo that couldn't enter the school without getting tossed in the trash. The most he could hope for back then was that Finn would take his more expensive items so they wouldn't get ruined and protect him from more aggressive bullying by his teammates. He and his father were strangers living in the same house. He was alone in every way. There was no way he could have known he would turn out so lucky. He prayed, actually _prayed_, that his fickle luck would hold up long enough to get him through the coming obstacles.

Finn's half-smile grew, and the doorbell rang again throughout the house. Kurt watched Finn a moment longer before heading downstairs.

* * *

><p>Rachel was drunk in an oddly sober way, dancing around Kurt's bedroom without inhibition. Kurt blamed her survivor's high, especially when she started listing off all of the added dreams she discovered she had since her 'close encounter with The End'. Apparently, Rachel Berry was going to learn to fence and jump out of a plane. Hopefully not at the same time.<p>

Kurt leaned against his vanity as Pat Benatar moved Rachel to fist pump the air with feisty little swings. Kurt raised an eyebrow but stayed relatively expressionless. Crazed with relief Rachel was better than just crazed.

He hadn't heard the doorbell ring again, so he was surprised when he looked up to see Mercedes and Quinn in the open doorway. He straightened up immediately and crossed to take their overnight bags.

"Ladies." He smiled at them in turn, his grin a little brighter on Mercedes. "Welcome."

Quinn eyed her surroundings dubiously, Kurt's minimalist style crisp and neat under her scrutinizing gaze. "So this is Love Cave de Furt. I would have imagined it messier and more covered by Finn's dirty everything."

Kurt looked down his nose. "That wreck would be across the hall in Finn's bedroom. We don't share." There was only one bed in the room. What kind of house did she think their parents were running? Then again, considering the amount of times one or the other of them snuck into each other's beds to sleep, he wasn't going to make a big thing of it. "You will, of course, take the bed with Mercedes tonight, Quinn dear. Rachel and I will sleep on the air mattress."

Rachel's eyes got huge and she bounced on her heels, clapping. "I've never done that! You do something new every day! It's incredible, isn't it? Life?"

Quinn's disdain was as open and pointed as ever. Mercedes passed Kurt a look, but he shrugged. He was happy Rachel was alive. She could be happy too, even if it was in a slightly manic way.

"Hey, Mercedes." They looked over to see Finn leaning in the doorway, his slightly wrinkled jeans sitting lazily on his hips. Kurt repressed a sigh. It wasn't fair that Finn spent about two seconds, in which time he was sniffing his clothes to make sure they didn't smell too bad, to get ready for the day and look that good. His particular brand of clothing left much to be desired, but what he did put on always sat well on his tall, broad figure. A figure that might let him cheat around the wardrobe rules but not one that Kurt was about to complain about for half a second.

"White boy." Mercedes dug into her oversized purse, one that Kurt hadn't seen before but needed to ask about soon. It was delicious. She pulled out a wrapped pecan muffin and tossed it to Finn. He caught it, lighting up like a ten year old on Christmas.

"Thank you, Mercedes." Kurt said for him since the plastic was open and Finn's mouth was stuffed with sweets before he got it out himself. Finn looked guiltily between him and Mercedes, but Mercedes only chuckled and waved him off.

"Hi, Quinn." Finn greeted when he managed to swallow the massive bite he took. Half of the muffin was gone. Kurt shook his head.

Quinn exhaled through her nose with a frown, turning to Kurt. "Let's get something straight, alright? The only reason I came was because Mercedes asked me to. It's the end of the year, and after this we're all going to go our separate ways. After everything that happened and losing Santana and Brittany…" She set her jaw and lifted her chin as though refusing to submit to the feelings that came with that thought. "I don't think it's a terrible idea to spend some time with friends. But that doesn't mean I buy into any of your nonsense, Kurt. And I don't want to talk about it."

Rachel and Mercedes exchanged knowing looks, both believers who thought they owed their lives to Kurt's 'nonsense'. Kurt held his chin up with equal stubbornness, and his height allowed him to look down his nose at her.

"Very well." He replied with a prim shrug. He hadn't seen anything related to her yet anyway. There was nothing pertinent to discuss. Clapping his hands and threading his fingers together at his waist, he looked between his friends. "Music and mani-pedis?"

Mercedes and Rachel beamed and Quinn tentatively nodded.

"What music?" Finn asked, shoving the empty wrapper of the devoured muffin into his pants pocket. He would end up shucking the pants before bed, leaving them on the floor for weeks until Carole picked them up and found a pile of ants living in the pocket. He was hoping to still be included, willing to stick around during their girlish primping if there was something playing for his auditory pleasure.

"Barbra!" Rachel immediately enthused.

"Give it a rest!" Mercedes snapped, turning to Kurt. "Aretha."

Speaking of giving it a rest… Kurt opened his mouth to suggest something outside of their normal go-to list, but Quinn sat down on the edge of his bed and spoke first.

"Why don't we just put the radio on and see what's playing."

Kurt smiled appreciatively, going to do just that. Finn started to walk in to join them when a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.

"Whoa, where do you think you're going?" Burt asked.

Well, his father was home. Kurt looked over to see him pulling Finn back out into the hallway.

"I was just-"

"Crashing Kurt's slumber party full of girls and Kurt? I don't think so, buddy. Back to your room. They don't need to pillow fight with a quarterback." Burt pulled a sputtering Finn backward.

Kurt set his father with an indignant look. Pillow fights, really? "What do you think goes on during my girls nights?"

"I don't know, don't wanna know, and Finn here's not _gonna_ know. Got it?" He pointed between Finn and the rest of them with fatherly intimidation. Kurt shrugged. It made no difference to him, but Finn huffed dejectedly. "You leave your room and it's to go to the bathroom or the kitchen. That's it." Burt gave Finn the Argue-With-Me-And-See-Where-It-Goes look. Finn cowered back from it, nodding. Burt left for his room with parting words that left no room for doubt as to the warning behind them. "I won't be going to sleep any time soon."

Jeez. What did he think Finn was going to do? Jump him in front of three of their friends? Oh well. His father was healing from their morning of epically awkward proportions. They would just have to deal with his weird strictness for a while.

Kurt gave Finn, now standing in his own doorway across the hall sadly, a sympathetic smile and turned back to the girls. He had nails to fix and pretty up. Not to mention a premonition to have and a girl to save. Weren't things supposed to get easier at the end of high school? So much for his senior slump.

* * *

><p>Rachel's feet bounced rapidly over the DDR mat, and Kurt wasn't sure if he regretted letting them convince him to play or not. Some old classic rock song was playing on the screen, the different arrows lighting up and telling Rachel where to put her feet. Dance Dance Revolution could hardly be called 'dancing'; more like Cardio Revolution. Mercedes was already sitting on her butt on the carpet in the living room, legs out and complaining about the burn in her calves. Quinn sat primly on the couch, looking between Mercedes and Rachel's manically moving legs.<p>

She was more advanced at the game than Kurt would have expected, but even she couldn't hit all of the steps when the lights started scrolling up faster after she raised the level. She gave it her all, though, pounding away, skinny legs jumping all over the mat. Mercedes cackled with laughter, pointing and doubling over her lap.

"What's happening?" Finn's voice rose and called out from the kitchen, where he went when the rest of them went downstairs. Burt wasn't kidding about keeping Finn out of the festivities either. It took two minutes before he was downstairs too and Kurt could hear him questioning Finn about what he was eating in the kitchen. Finn was lucky he was always hungry, because he'd had to quickly begin fussing around the kitchen to make something.

"Rachel's a lunatic is all. Nothing new." Quinn called back mildly.

The song wrapped and Rachel stepped off the mat, turning and resting her hands on her knees panting. "You're just jealous…Fabray…because you don't…have my…" She gulped for air. "…moves."

"Thank God for small favors." Quinn replied with a nasty twitch of her eyebrow.

Kurt clapped his hands together as Rachel fixed her with a pre-ranting face. "Let's go back upstairs, shall we?"

Mercedes chortled at their tense exchange but got up, grabbed Quinn's hand and started hauling her over to the staircase. Rachel jogged up behind them and as Kurt reached the bottom of the stairs, Finn mysteriously appeared at his side. He gave him a knowing smile as Finn reached for the banister.

"Finished eating, are you?"

Finn's hand went to the small of his back as they started up. He grinned. "Yep."

Kurt wrapped his arm around his waist and gave him a squeeze when they reached the top. Finn did a double take toward Kurt's half-open door, so Kurt looked over at his bedroom at the girls inside. Mercedes was unbuttoning her jeans while Quinn reached behind her for the zipper of her sundress and Rachel hopped around, yanking her shirt up. Apparently it was pajama time, and Finn had the lucky fortune of catching a glimpse of it. He stared mesmerized but Kurt quickly shoved him in the chest, making him stumble backward into the wall. Kurt fixed him with a pointed glare, breaking Finn out of his daze and painting his face in guilt. Revenge was pretty simple.

Kurt deliberately brought his fingers up to the top button of his shirt and undid the first two as he backed into his room. Finn's face fell as he realized Kurt was about to change with all of the girls in his bedroom. His jaw dropped, and Kurt smirked as he stood in the cracked doorway blocking the girls from sight and shut it after him.

He almost hoped his dad would choose to check on them again right then, so he would find Finn gaping and/or drooling at his bedroom door. Would serve him right. Though, with the fantasy material he just provided him with, he didn't think Finn would have a hard time coming up with something to do alone in his room for a while… With a frown, he turned around to the girls in different levels of undress and went to get his own pajamas.

"I'm taking a quick shower." Mercedes announced, grabbing her overnight bag to go to Kurt's private restroom. Finn had to use the one in the hall, something that didn't so much as phase him when he was told since he was unaccustomed to having a connecting one in the first place. Where Kurt would have been outraged, Finn had shrugged and nodded. Boys. "DDR whooped my ass."

Kurt smiled at her as he pulled his shirt off his shoulders and folded it delicately on the back of his desk chair. "Now I know who to call the next time we're at the mall and you won't listen to me when I tell you not to buy the zebra pattern blouse. I mean, honestly, Mercedes! No more zebra!"

Mercedes blew an unladylike dismissal through her pursed lips and locked herself in the bathroom.

"I'm next!" Rachel called.

* * *

><p>By one in the morning they were all starting to wind down. The whacky sleep schedule of slumber parties was undoubtedly the worst part about the overnight gossip sessions. Kurt's complexion didn't come in a magic spray. He had to work for it, and getting a solid eight hours every night was part of that battle.<p>

Finn was on the floor, slumped against the doorway to his own bedroom across the hall, where he had been sitting since they opened their door back up for him to communicate. His head was tilted half against the wall and down toward his chin. His chest moved in the slow rhythm of sleep, and Kurt marveled that he could pass out in any position at any time. He was going to have major back issues when he was older with his total lack of regard for proper lumbar support.

Rachel took her sweet time getting into the shower after Mercedes got out and then took forever, ensuring that all of the hot water was gone. She was lucky Kurt showered earlier. He looked in his bathroom now and glowered.

"Rachel, the floor is covered in water! You're as bad as Finn." Kurt snapped.

Mercedes and Quinn looked at each other mischievously and ooh-ed.

"Tell us more about how Finn gets your bathroom floor all soaked during showers in your bathroom." Mercedes teased.

"Or don't." Rachel put in flatly.

"Yes," Quinn cut in. "And how alone is he during these scenarios?"

Kurt refused to look at them, staring at his freshly buffed nails and hoping the dim lamplight was masking the bright blush on his cheeks. He was glad Finn was asleep like a tranquilized troll across the hallway or he would surely be blurting out embarrassing private things to try to stumble through the awkwardness. It was a plan that never worked in his favor but that he didn't seem capable of learning his lesson from.

Rachel plopped down on the air mattress that Burt came in and pumped up for them. Carole had brought them extra sheets and pillows and offered to make up the couch for Kurt if Rachel wanted to sleep alone, but Rachel had only jumped in to hug Kurt from behind and shaken her head, getting wet droplets from her shower all over his sleeve.

"Can we just go to sleep? These vocal cords don't rest themselves." Rachel stressed.

"Don't we know it." Quinn frowned at her, and Rachel made a face in return.

"Okay, ladies." Kurt switched the lamp off, preventing another Fabray/Berry face-off. "Good night."

Rachel laid back on the air mattress as Quinn settled down on Kurt's bed beside Mercedes who just moaned incoherently into her pillow. Kurt made his way out into the hall and over to his ridiculous boyfriend. Squatting in front of him, he rubbed his shoulders and shook him lightly. When that didn't work, he pushed his chest until he started falling backward and jerked awake to catch himself. He gasped and looked around bewildered.

"Falling asleep sitting up? Attractive." Kurt said sarcastically. He leaned forward and kissed his forehead. "Get up. Go to sleep."

He started to leave but Finn caught his wrist. He looked up at him with a sleepy boyish grin. "Come with me." He mumbled.

Kurt squeezed his hand but pulled his arm free. "My father would pull you out of bed and undo all my hard work to keep you alive. Let him recover from seeing your hand in bad places."

Finn sneered. "I don't remember you calling it a 'bad place' this morning." His eyes dropped to the so-called 'bad place', and Kurt was starting to get pissy about all the blushing people were making him do lately.

He swatted Finn's hand away when he reached for him again. "Get up and go to bed, you lazy slug. Tonight I'm sleeping with Rachel."

Finn raised an interested eyebrow, and Kurt scowled. Finn was definitely getting his money's worth in the fantasy department tonight. Finn got to his feet with surprising speed considering how far out he was only seconds ago. He grabbed Kurt behind the neck and pulled him up, planting a rough sloppy kiss against his lips, parting them and moving his sleepy tongue against his with surprising insistence. He sighed as he pulled back and slapped Kurt's ass. Kurt jumped at the smack but before he could shoot him a properly incredulous look, Finn kissed him again and stepped back into his room. Finn's noisy yawn was his only 'good night' as he turned, pulling his t-shirt up and over his head. The flash of his defined back made Kurt swallow and turn stiffly back for his own bedroom. Apparently two could play at the creating fantasies game… Lesson learned.

"Kurt," Rachel turned on her side as soon as he sat down on the squeaky mattress and snuggled under the covers. He groaned at her tiredly. "Are you sure you don't want Quinn down here? In case you have a dream and need to wake her up?"

"Don't start." Quinn warned before he could reply.

Rachel sat up and turned toward the taller bed in the dark room. "Why would Kurt make it up, Quinn? And I suppose it's just a coincidence that he's been right every single time, and it's a coincidence that ever since the day at the zoo we've all been having mysterious accidents in the order in which we were killed in Kurt's vision? Or, pardon me, 'hallucination'. You don't make any sense. He saved Mercedes' life!"

Mercedes surprised him when she grunted incoherently into the pillow. He thought she was asleep already. Rachel understood her though.

"Mine too." She agreed. "Not to mention Mr. Schuester."

"Enough. This is ridiculous." Quinn snapped. "Even if it was true, it's not only unnatural but wrong to fight it. If I'm supposed to die, it's God willing, and what gives any of us the right to intervene?"

"Quinn, this isn't God!" Kurt exclaimed at the ceiling, slapping his palms down on the blanket covering him in frustration. "This is something else. I'm not trying to warp your beliefs. I just want you to listen to me if I get a feeling or something. We can still fix this."

Quinn laughed bitterly. "Do you have any idea how arrogant that is? How _insane_? God has a plan for all of us. We don't get to understand it. We don't have to like it, but you don't go around trying to '_fix_' the path He laid out for you. All you can do is try to be the best possible version of yourself, so you can meet Him with a shred of dignity when He decides that it's your time."

Kurt sat up angrily and squinted over at the blonde preaching at him from his bed. "So what are you saying?" He asked sharply. "I should have let Finn burn to death in that crematorium because intervening is sacrilegious?"

Quinn sat up too and glared over in the darkness. "You saved him, Kurt, so obviously he was meant to be saved."

"What does that mean?" Kurt argued incredulously. "You have a lot of convictions and judgments but you're full of contradictions."

Quinn's jaw set and her eyes sparked. "Well, you're full of-"

Mercedes' hand shot up and covered Quinn's mouth abruptly silencing her. "Girl, don't say something you're going to regret in the morning."

"Speaking of regrets," Quinn threw the covers off in furious jerky movements, getting to her feet. "I knew it was a mistake to come here." She rounded the bed, glaring over at Kurt. "You're crazy. Santana and Brittany are dead, Oh Omniscient One. Either you're out of your mind or you really suck at this hero thing."

She slammed the door to his restroom shut behind her and Kurt flinched. He stared at the door stricken. The guilt of their deaths weighed on him like cement shoes slowly dragging him under water until he drowned. Finn had said nobody blamed him, but he was wrong. The blood rushed from his face as he remembered Santana swinging over the stage and Brittany laid out awkwardly, both broken and lost. The air mattress groaned and squeaked awkwardly under Rachel as she moved closer and placed a comforting hand on his arm.

Mercedes rolled over to face them and frowned in the darkness. "She didn't mean it, Kurt. She's just upset. This is all really weird and hard to deal with. It's hard for her to reconcile what's happening with you with her religion."

Kurt avoided their eyes and protested. "You're religious, Mercedes, and you believe me."

"Honey, I experienced your wizard voodoo firsthand." She said, the exhaustion thick in her voice. "Besides, I think all of these signs _are_ coming from God. He's giving us a second chance."

Rachel nodded adamantly.

Kurt exhaled deeply and got up. "Well, I better make peace or the Captain of the Kurt Haters Brigade won't even take my call when I do see something about her."

He knocked lightly at the bathroom door. "Quinn. Quinn, I'm sorry. Let's not talk about this anymore. Come out so I can kiss your perfectly symmetrical all-American face and go to sleep. Some of us have to work for our beauty. In case you haven't seen my father's less than distinguished receding hairline behind his oh-so-attractive assortment of ugly baseball caps, I don't exactly have genes that root for me."

After a moment she opened the door and looked up at him frowning. "Just a second." She said quietly. "Mercedes left her curling iron plugged in." Her voice rose with distaste. "And Rachel really should clean up this floor before-"

Kurt had forgotten about the post-shower flood as he stepped in after Quinn, left foot sliding out from under him and his right foot twisting with his full weight on it. He gasped and Quinn grabbed his arm, reaching behind her for the sink to balance herself. Her hand gripped the round end of the curling iron, and she hissed, drawing back and stumbling away. The heel of her bare foot landed in a puddle of water pooled over the tiles against the tub and her legs went out from under her. Her hand left Kurt and she fell back hard, the back of her skull connecting with a heavy thud against the short porcelain wall of the tub.

Kurt flinched and stared in the darkness, but Quinn's body slumped down lifelessly against the tub and down to the floor. Kurt's hand shook so hard it took an inordinate amount of time for him find the light switch behind him on the wall and switch it on. All the while, the girls were moving noisily in the bedroom, hurrying over to see what was happening. The second Kurt found the switch and blasted the room with light, a thick black shadow moved over the water on the floor and disappeared. His nerves shot out in every direction, lightning fast and twitchy.

Behind him in the doorway, Rachel and Mercedes bumped their way through.

"Oh my God…" Mercedes said, voice dull and low in shock.

Rachel screamed, high and loud, eyes going huge at the sight of Quinn laying there with her eyes open unseeingly with a thick daub of blood thickening her blonde hair and dripping onto the floor. Mercedes put her arms around Rachel and started pulling her back out, but her high terrified screams continued until she was forced into the bedroom with Quinn out of sight.

Kurt stepped toward Quinn, and the pain in his right ankle sent flares of harsh shocks through his nerves. It was definitely sprained or worse. Dropping to his knees, he soaked his pajama pants as he crawled forward and lifted his arm. His entire hand shook with reservations as he forced himself to reach out. His fingers sat against her throat, pointless and trembling. No pulse.

The door to his bedroom banged open and several heavy footsteps entered.

"What's going on?" His father bellowed. He could hear Rachel and Mercedes in full sobs now.

"It's Quinn," Mercedes choked out.

Carole was already in the doorway of the restroom and she brought a hand to her mouth in shock as she looked down at her stepson beside Quinn's lifeless body.

"Burt, call 911." Her voice was stilted and even with chilling restraint as her husband appeared beside her in the doorway. He caught one glance of Kurt shaking beside Quinn and swore loudly, disappearing to find a phone.

"Kurt?" Finn ducked in past his mother and his mouth flew open. "Oh shit! Quinn! What happened?" Carole reached to pull him back but he pulled away, dropping beside Kurt and grabbing him under the arms. He hauled him to his feet and dragged him backward away from Quinn. Kurt winced and cried out as he was set back on his injured foot. Finn looked down at him and without asking, tucked an arm under his knees and picked him up. He carried Kurt out of the room and out to his bed, setting him down on top of his sheets, wet pajamas and all.

"Kurt." Finn dropped to his knees beside the bed looking at him imploringly, hands hovering over him to search out his injury. He shook Kurt's shoulders asking him what hurt, but Kurt sat pressed up against the headboard staring ahead in shock.

He hadn't seen anything, hadn't felt anything. There had been no warning. Quinn was fine, and then she wasn't. Quinn was alive. And then she wasn't. He sat stiff and unresponsive, not hearing the faraway voice of his father, though he was in the room, or feeling Finn's hands on him, blocking out Rachel's gasps of fright as she and Mercedes clung to Carole. He stared at the open bathroom door and trembled silently even as paramedics and police officers appeared in the room.

The girls were holding hands and talking to the police officer near the bathroom explaining what had happened. Burt was pointing at Kurt and speaking rapidly with a paramedic who was shining a light in his eyes and checking his pulse. Kurt's hand rose where it was lifted and stayed in the air until the paramedic lowered it back down. Everything seemed to come at a great distance. It was like trying to make sense of a foreign film without subtitles.

"He's in shock." The medic told Burt.

"I think his ankle's broken." Finn was ghostly white, and the paramedic spoke to his partner back and forth for a while. None of their exchange connected with Kurt.

Even as he was lifted onto a stretcher and carried out, his eyes closed and all he was aware of was Quinn's dead body nearby and how only a few minutes ago she had been alive and well. Now she was being zipped into a body bag like trash to be carried out of the house, an empty shell of what she was.

Finn climbed into the ambulance with him after a short argument with Burt that ended in Finn jumping up into the back before Burt could stop him and stubbornly refusing to get out. Carole pulled Burt toward the car to follow them as the girls came out of the house after getting dressed as quickly as two teenaged girls had ever done in their lives.

The ambulance set off down the street, and Finn squeezed his numb hand, bending next to his ear from the bench seat and whispering soothingly below the detection of the medic riding in the back with them.

Kurt only caught snippets. "It's okay….baby…I got you…not your fault…" After a few more hushed reassurances, Finn started crying, holding Kurt's hand to his forehead as he sobbed. Kurt only caught one thing between his tears, but it was enough to close him off entirely.

"…Dammit, Quinn…"

But Quinn would never hear his grief. After saving Mercedes, Mr. Schuester, Rachel, and Finn, his luck had run out. Quinn was gone.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **Thanks for the reviews/alerts. I think it's a good thing that you're disturbed. lol :P

**Chapter Twelve**

The church where the service was held was beautiful. People could say what they wanted about Catholics, but their churches were exquisite. The high ceiling was majestic in its architecture. The stained glass windows were eerily ethereal. The afternoon sun streamed through the multi-colored glass and sent light rainbows over the pews. The cross mounted beyond the altar captivated Kurt. It was so sad and brutal, but the sacrifice behind it was undeniably moving. As large as it was, the church was packed.

Santana's and Brittany's funerals had been full too. Their deaths were getting a lot of media buzz according to what Kurt overheard from Carole. He had been avoiding television since the whole debacle started. He did not need to know what people were saying about him and his friends. Besides Quinn's bountiful family and friends, strangers and voyeurs who saw her story and the story of the 'aquarium survivors' on the news showed up in droves.

The Hudson-Hummels were sitting in a pew closer to the back. Kurt sat at the end so he could comfortably rest his crutches out of the way against the pew. His ankle wasn't broken, just badly sprained. He had to wear a brace for a few weeks and had a prescription for painkillers, but he escaped having to get a cast. A black sock poked out of the end of his brace, and an Armani shoe protected his other foot.

He had woken up in the hospital after being sedated but wasn't surprised or confused the next morning. He dreamt about Quinn's death all night. Rachel and Mercedes' parents picked them up some time in the night, but both Carole and Burt were asleep in chairs next to his bed. Finn was curled around him like an oversized comforter, holding him tightly and snoring lightly in his ear. Kurt had laid awake for an hour before the others stirred.

They had looked at him like he had been waiting desperately to talk since the night before, but that was the last thing he wanted. He didn't even feel capable. The next three days passed with a dull gaze and muteness from Kurt. Finn tried repeatedly to get him to talk, but Kurt's answers were short or evasive. He didn't want to talk. He didn't want to think. He felt rotted from the inside out, sick every time he rewound Quinn's fall right in front of him.

He avoided his family like the plague, hiding out in his room and refusing company. He didn't know how he was ever supposed to spend time with Finn normally again. Santana and Brittany were their friends, and it was devastating to lose them. Quinn was someone Finn used to date and once cared about very deeply. She was a girl who he actually thought he was going to have a baby with and had envisioned an entire future with her. Quinn owned a piece of him. She was his first love, and that didn't disappear or go forgotten. Kurt knew, because Finn was his.

Kurt dropped his gaze from the priest talking at the front of the church to his lap, down at his dismally conforming suit in a sea of matching black. He was going to be sick. Getting to his feet as silently and inconspicuously as someone with a sprained ankle could, he tucked his crutches under his arms and made his way down the aisle to the back.

He caught sight of Rachel and Puck in the back row as he passed. In an uncharacteristic show of emotion, Puck's eyes were thick and red-rimmed. Tears were openly cascading down his face, and Rachel squeezed his hand with her far hand, her closest arm hugged tightly around his shoulders. Ice ran through Kurt's heart and sent a freezing wave of grief through him. There was Finn, who thought he was going to have a baby with Quinn…and Puck, who actually had.

Stomach turning dangerously, Kurt barely made it out of the church, pushing the doors open and stepping out into the breezy afternoon. He drew a long breath in and tried to steady himself. Careful as he reached the long stone steps ascending to the church, he stopped and went back to lean one of his crutches against the wall.

The clouds overhead were darkening and moving in bloated bunches across the blue sky, settling in for a grim day of lightning and rain. The temperature was already dropping, wind whipping around and throwing the heavily bushed trees to and fro in the courtyard.

The tall oak door behind him opened and closed. "Babe. You okay?"

Kurt glanced over at Finn, handsome and sweet in the Gucci suit Kurt had bought for him over Christmas break. He had hoped he would have a more pleasant occasion to wear it. A musical, a night downtown, a night out of town. Not a funeral and certainly not a funeral for Quinn. He looked away, back out at the swaying trees and the coming storm.

Finn came up behind him and stopped, imploring him. "Kurt, you have to talk to me."

Kurt shook his head, watching a distant car drive down the quiet street, curbs cluttered with vehicles from the funeral. His voice was a raspy whisper. "How can I talk to you? I can't even look at you."

Finn squeezed his shoulders and dipped down, pressing a slow kiss against his temple. Kurt's eyes fluttered closed and he leaned back against him instinctively.

"Can you explain something to me?" Finn said quietly.

Guilt was overwhelming Kurt to such an extreme that he expected it to be coming at him from all directions, but Finn was being loving and concerned. It threw him off, and he dropped his head back against him. He reached up and grabbed one of the hands on his shoulder, dragging it down and holding it at their side.

"Why is it your fault?" Finn asked.

Kurt swallowed and stared at the trees.

"I didn't have a vision." Finn went on. "Rachel didn't feel anything. Mercedes didn't see a sign. It wasn't really an accident like everyone thinks, because this Death thing is after us. But _you_ didn't do it. Why would you ever hurt Quinn or Santana or Brittany? You did everything you could. I know I'm pretty, uh, un-smart sometimes, but you're being the dummy here. Don't shut me out. Not now and not for this."

Kurt turned slowly and looked up at Finn, his dark eyes penetrating his searchingly. The door to the church opened again and Burt cleared his throat.

"I need to talk to my son for a minute, Finn."

Finn looked to Kurt for confirmation that this was okay, and the fact that he was willing to combat Burt's wishes if he wanted him to stay set a loving ache inside Kurt's already tortured heart. He nodded minutely and accepted Finn's light kiss to his forehead before he turned and slipped quietly back into the church.

Burt gestured to the steps, and as loathe as Kurt was to sit down on a heavily trafficked area in any of his clothes, the strain of standing with his crutch convinced him to oblige. Burt settled next to him and just watched him quietly until Kurt collected his thoughts and spoke.

"I didn't see anything. I couldn't help her. Why would this time be different, Dad?" Kurt bit his bottom lip and looked at his father, not expecting an answer. "I got something with everyone else. A vision, a dream, a feeling, a sign. It was just nothing. She was right in front of me when it happened and I was completely blank until after she was already dead. I saw a shadow in the water." He explained tentatively.

"Hey," Burt met his eyes sternly. "You can't blame yourself for this, Kurt. Maybe not having a vision was the point. If all of this is because of some plan, then maybe Quinn was meant to die that day at the aquarium, and this is just Fate setting itself straight."

Kurt shook his head despairingly. "Then why did I see things with Santana and Brittany? Were they supposed to live, but I was just too late?"

Burt made to reach for his cap, forgetting momentarily that Carole would have chewed it apart with her teeth before letting him wear it to a funeral. He rubbed his head instead. "This is way over my head, kid. All I can say is you can't blame yourself. You did the best you could to save her and you got hurt too. I love you, alright, and we're going to get through this. You, me, Finn, and Carole. I want you in my sights at all times, got it? I'll be damned if I let some pattern or design dictate what happens to my son. You just stay close to me, and I'll look after you."

Kurt didn't have the heart to tell him that wasn't how it worked. If strong will and bravado was all it took, Quinn would have been alive, not laying in a casket a few feet away from where her mother was sobbing. He dropped his head to his shoulder instead. "Thanks, Dad."

Burt wrapped his arm around him, and they breathed in that telltale smell of approaching rain, silently hoping that this would be the last funeral for a while.

* * *

><p>It was a private wake, so the media swarm that attended the funeral wasn't allowed. Kurt wasn't sure if he would be allowed, but Quinn's mother had given him a look at the door, blank and unrevealing, before moving on to the person waiting behind him. Kurt had been worried about keeping Finn together at the burial, but he had done a remarkable job of doing that himself. Finn's arm hadn't left Puck's shoulders the entire time, both boys taking support from each other. It was a small relief but banged into Kurt's heart even worse watching him struggle to be strong for his friend.<p>

Now Finn was somewhere in the living room digging through the refreshments with Burt. Carole was talking quietly with Mrs. Puckerman on the sofa, and Kurt wandered away into the kitchen. The wake was catered, and besides the occasionally somber uniformed worker passing through to grab a new tray, it was a safe zone to be alone.

"Hello, Porcelain."

Kurt jumped and turned in the wooden chair to see Sue Sylvester leaning in the doorway. The dark blazer marked only the second time that he had seen her out of a tracksuit. His dad without a cap, Sue without her athletic wear; funerals seemed to be the only thing capable of breaking major fashion faux pas.

"Coach Sylvester." Kurt acknowledged politely.

She moved into the room and leaned against the table where he was sitting, knocking one of his crutches to the floor in the process. He minimized his jump and glanced up at her hesitantly. She studied him a moment.

"From what I understand," she started, "you were with my Quinn when it happened. Her accident."

Kurt's palms began to sweat. Sylvester was always intimidating, but with the current amount of stress he was under, her watchful stare felt like a solar flare being drilled into him. He shrugged stiffly.

"And just recently, I lost Fake Boobs and Blondie."

Kurt forced his eyes back up to hers uncomfortably. "We all lost Santana and Brittany."

"And you were there that time, too." Sylvester ignored him. "You found them and you were with Quinn. I've been hearing rumors in the McKinley High back-lines that you're a fortune teller of doom."

Something gross and heavy settled in Kurt's stomach, and he was glad he skipped lunch. Of course she heard that. If Jacob Ben Israel wasn't spreading it, his videos spoke for themselves, and the news was all too happy to inform those who were lucky enough to have no connection to Jacob. He stayed silent. What could he really say to that? It was true.

Sue leaned down and planted her hands on the tabletop, staring at him with a dangerous intensity. "Porcelain, something is going on here. I can smell it. Something beyond the hocus-pocus jibber-jabber Ben Israel and my enemies at the news station are spewing. It's not fiction…is it, lady hands?"

Kurt held her unnerving stare but stayed silent, not even chancing a nod. No one could be sure when she had a recorder stuffed in her pocket. If she was willing to play Mr. Schuester's humiliating drunk dial voicemail over the intercom at school, there was no telling what she would do with a taped confession of his so-called precognitive instincts.

After several long, grueling moments where she read him and he tried to be unreadable, she stood back up. Eyes darting around the immaculate kitchen briefly, she straightened her blazer.

"Quinn was a good captain." She spoke of her cheerio unexpectedly. "I'm sure you did what you could for her."

Tears prickled and stung his eyes at the sentiment coming from the least likely source of comfort. He blinked against them rapidly. "Thanks, Coach Sylvester."

She nodded once and strode from the room, leaving Kurt to wonder about that heart of hers that she kept so capably hidden from everyone. It was there, and it was hurting. Just another victim of May's grief.

* * *

><p>Kurt kept his head against the window on the ride home from the wake, heavy droplets hitting the cool glass in a steady rhythm. The grey sky was a comfort. It might have physically killed him if they had to say goodbye to Quinn under mocking sunlight and serene white clouds. It was better that way. Like the world was acknowledging their trouble.<p>

Finn sniffled quietly across from him in the backseat, his eyes following the fall and splatter pattern of the rain on his side. Kurt reached over and found his hand, squeezing it until Burt pulled the car into the driveway and they all piled out with their umbrellas. Kurt felt stupid with his bright yellow one, but he didn't own a black one and had to make do.

He was up in his room for a while, quietly sitting in the middle of his bed and trying to clear his mind. He couldn't explain why he didn't get any warning of Quinn's death. Like everything else going on, it didn't make sense. But he would try his hardest to get something for Puck. He didn't want to feel responsible for another one of their friends' deaths, and losing Puck would devastate Finn. He broke around the edges with the loss of the others, splintering further and deeper with Quinn dying, but losing his best friend might shatter him beyond repair.

Kurt meditated for a long time, contemplating whether or not to just try to go to sleep. Something might come to him in a dream. Or maybe he was done. The visions, the signs, maybe it was over. In a tiny way, it would be a relief. At least then he wouldn't carry the burden of saving them. Everything would be left to chance and Fate. Couldn't have quit at a more inconvenient time, though, considering he was next after Puck.

That was another thing. What would happen to his father if he died? After losing his mom, his father had been strong because he had someone to be strong for. With Kurt gone, he didn't know how well Burt would cope. He would still have Carole of course, but despite Kurt's insecurities, he knew that he was drilled at the core of Burt's heart. A physically weak heart that might give out if faced with yet another round of grief.

And what about Finn? Kurt leaned back against the pillows and fought to keep his breathing under control. He really, really didn't want to die. He hadn't had a chance to get out of Ohio yet, escape Lima and break out somewhere better. Somewhere bigger, somewhere that would appreciate his creative genius. He was going to drive himself crazy worrying about it.

Pulling himself up, he took off his suit jacket and laid it carefully on the edge of his desk chair to deal with later. Going downstairs without tumbling with his crutches took some effort, but he made it. He searched first the kitchen and then the living room, but no one was down there. He assumed their parents were upstairs, and went to the back door. He saw Finn through the glass, and slid it back slowly.

Finn was standing with his back to the house, looking out under the shaded deck at the heavy rainfall. He was still in his full suit, jacket buttoned and his hands in his pants pockets. The sharp lines sat perfectly on his tall broad shoulders, and Kurt felt his breath catch. He never got used to the idea that Finn was his to have and love. He was entirely unexpected, thoroughly wanted, and a bit of a miracle in Lima. Setting his crutches against the house, he limped over to him delicately.

"Hey." He said softly, raising his hand high on Finn's back and looking up at him sadly.

Finn kept staring out at the beating rain, face stiff with restraint. There were too many emotions behind that mask to be expressed at once. Holding it together seemed easier. Kurt rubbed gentle circles over his back.

"I'm going to go to Puck's." Finn said softly, voice low and scratchy from crying. Kurt nodded. "We should be together today. You know?"

He finally looked at Kurt, and it was all Kurt could do to keep from crying. His own hurt over losing Quinn was amplified by Finn's hurt. He hummed quietly in agreement to keep from speaking. The tears would come if he spoke. For several long seconds, they watched the rain in silence, together but alone with their own grief. Sadness that ran that deep didn't work with a partner. Everyone was on their own.

The afternoon was a dark smoky grey. The sheets of rain pelting the grass seemed to run from an endless faucet, strong and quick as it fell.

Finn wasn't looking at him when he asked. "You're next after Puck?"

His eyes slowly dragged down to Kurt, and he had no choice but to nod honestly. Their gaze locked and they froze within each other, searching and desperate for security or hope. Something to hold on to and tell them that all was not lost. Not yet anyway.

Kurt slowly lowered his hand from his back and stared up at him, despair warning him to prepare Finn for the worst.

His eyes quickly scanned Finn's face, his dark eyes, the strong cut of his jaw, the sweet openness he showed him. He wanted to tack that image in his mind and take it with him. "Finn, if something happens to me-"

"No." Finn broke their gaze and looked away from him.

Kurt pushed against his stubbornness. "But if it does-"

Without a word, Finn left his side and went down the deck steps into the rain. The torrential stream instantly soaked his suit, laying his hair flat and stiffening his shoulders with its cold clashing insistence. Kurt hesitated. Finn could make anything look good, but Kurt's suit was six hundred dollars off of Armani's line. That wasn't including the investment he had put in to have it tailored to himself. And the shoes-well, the one shoe he had on the foot not currently locked up in a brace… It was part of a pair that were twelve hundred by themselves. At least his jacket was safely upstairs.

Kurt hobbled back to the house, toed off his irreplaceable designer shoe, grabbed his crutches, and stepped out in his black socks. He gasped with instant shivers as his white dress shirt was soaked through in seconds, sticking transparently to his skin. His foot squished against the grass as he carried himself out to Finn in the yard and grabbed his wrist. Finn stopped shuffling but didn't look at him, squinting out in the rain and not meeting his eyes.

His increasingly obvious pain stretched over Kurt in a blanket of misery. They lost so much normality in the past few weeks. Kurt remembered his panic over losing Finn. If Finn felt even half of that fear for him, Kurt wanted to take it out of him. It was ugly and consuming. He wanted to smooth it over, make it better. But that wasn't smart, because it was coming despite their fear and panic. _It_ was coming for him soon, and there was no way to keep it at bay.

Finn grabbed the hand on his wrist in both of his and brought it up, resting Kurt's palm flat against his chest. The steady drum of his heart was a single warm spot in the cold rain. Finn's eyes burned into his, voice a low rumble under the distant thunder.

"This doesn't work without you." He said. "So…_no_."

His earnestness was enough to overwhelm Kurt's own heart, overfilling and squeezing with too much affection and anguish. He nodded slowly, reaching his arms up and around Finn's neck. His crutches fell soundlessly to the rain soaked ground. Finn watched him with wretched anticipation for what was coming their way before he dipped his head. Their lips locked together in the rain, slipping heatedly in rebellion against the icy shower making them press together with trembling hands. Kurt's fingers slid into Finn's wet tangles, and Finn pulled his hips to fit against him.

That was Kurt's place, with Finn, locked together like a permanently set puzzle. Finn nuzzled him closer, and he forced the overpowering fear at being torn away from him back. He would worry about Puck first. One thing at a time.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **Three more chapters after this, and this story is wrapped!**  
><strong>

**Chapter Thirteen**

The rain was still pounding outside when Rachel walked out to Puck's back yard in her knee length black dress and pink umbrella from the funeral. His mom let her in and pointed her outside, the exact opposite of where she wanted to go. It would be nice to be indoors and warm, but she went anyway. She had lost Puck somewhere after the burial, and he hadn't shown at the wake.

She trudged through the moist grass, the rain soaking her feet in her thin flats. Puck was standing under a tarp near the trees at the edge of the property line. A ghostly leech sucked the spirit out of her and sent her pulse racing as she spotted him lift an axe and slam it down across a chunk of wood resting on a short stump. It split and the wood shot off in opposite sides. Rachel stepped under the big tarp and tentatively lowered her umbrella.

"Noah, what are you doing?" Her voice almost got lost in the storm.

"I lost my girlfriend." Puck stabbed another chunk of wood on the stump in front of him. "Lost my baby mama." The axe rose high and a forceful swing sliced the block in half.

Rachel flinched. "N-Noah." She shook herself and fixed him with her bossiest tone. "Stop that this instant. Kurt says that you're next. You really shouldn't be-"

"So what if I am?" Puck bellowed, having no trouble being heard over the cacophonous thunder, sounding closer with every boom. "Everyone's dropping like flies, and I've always been a joiner." The axe plowed downward in a wide arc with a heavy thud.

"Noah, don't be an idiot. Come inside, and we'll call Rabbi Chaim." Rachel implored.

"This isn't going to be fixed with prayer, Berry. Lauren and Quinn are gone, and combining our Jew power isn't going to change that. So why don't you march your little ass back home before my Death shit drags you down with me." He walked over to the pile of wood behind him and hauled a stack back over to the stump. "It already skipped you or whatever, right? Go write a Grammy winner or go flash Ben Israel. Live a little. If Death wants me it can come and get me. I'd like to see the fucking punk try!"

"Noah!" Rachel exclaimed. "Death isn't something you can punch in the face and 'out-man'! Stop. You know, if Lauren were here-"

"Don't." He stopped on his way to pick the axe back up to point at her warningly.

She snapped her mouth shut, lips in a tight line for a couple of seconds before hurriedly getting out what she wanted to say anyway.

"All I'm saying is she was a tough girl who knew how to keep you in line, and you need someone to keep you in check because you are eternally making horrible life choices. I may not be your girlfriend or the mother of your estranged baby, but I am your friend. I value our time together even if the primary foundation of our friendship is based on our shared religious affiliations. You tolerate me very well, and I understand and appreciate your value underneath the many layers of crass misogyny. You're my friend, perhaps the best one I've ever had. And I believe Kurt, so even though I may not rank all that high to you, I hope you'll take your significance _to me_ into consideration while you debate whether or not to get yourself killed. I know you're in pain, Noah." Her voice slowed and softened. "It will get better. Please give yourself the time you need to see that."

"Listen to her, man."

Rachel turned to see Finn had walked up behind her. He lowered his umbrella when he reached the tarp, changed out of his suit into a pair of jeans and a hoodie. He looked pained but forced a thin smile as he looked over at Puck.

"An axe, dude?" Finn chided. "I love you, man, but that's pretty dumb. And…that's coming from me."

Puck took a couple of steps back, a wispy broken exhale almost lifting his lips. "Both of you suck." He jutted his chin out with a glare, and Rachel raised hers haughtily. He pulled his hand away from the handle of the axe and hunched in a lazy way as he looked over at them. "I don't know how to do this. This has been the shittiest few weeks of my life, and that's saying something because my life is _crap_."

Rachel watched and held back tears as Finn walked over and engulfed Puck in a hug. It looked like Puck was trying to pull away, but the urge quickly left him and his arms went around Finn tightly. Rachel shifted for a few moments wanting to make it a group hug but figuring that was pushing it.

Puck pulled back and frowned at Finn, shoving his shoulder away. "All right. Let's go inside. If I start grabbing your ass I'll know you gave me the gay."

Finn chuckled, and Rachel shook her head. Boys.

* * *

><p>Kurt checked his phone for the tenth time since Finn left. Nothing. Not that he was expecting anything. He was just afraid while he was busy not getting any supernatural warnings that the phone would ring with bad news about Puck. With any luck, Finn would convince Puck to come spend the night at their house to keep a closer eye on him. It hadn't helped with Quinn, but it had to be better than just hoping he would get a message in time if Kurt got something in the middle of the night.<p>

Or maybe he could go spend the night over there. He really didn't like the idea of Finn on the road with Puck in this weather. Too much bad could come from that. He woke his phone up to send Finn a quick text just to check in, but the abused battery blinked at him in a thin red line. Sighing, he walked it over to his dresser and paused as his eyes caught on the framed photo sitting in the corner. Finn had tacky rainbow beaded necklaces on with one arm slung around Puck's shoulders and the other around Kurt at the pride parade they road tripped to last semester. Puck's t-shirt said 'Team Gay' on the front (and unseen in the picture, 'No Homo' on the back, "to keep them at bay," he had said). Kurt sighed and bent down to the outlet beside the dresser. He grabbed the blow dryer by the cord to make room for the charger, but as the metal prongs pulled free, a static crackle burned the outlet and a sharp painful jolt snaked through the cord and shocked Kurt with a jarring shot of electricity.

He stumbled sideways, bumping the bookshelf and knocking a hardback off the top. He tripped backward over it and went down against the wall, banging into the potted bonsai tree and knocking it over on the floor. The hair on his arms was up, and he gasped for air in short, light pants. Across the room, a dark shadow glided over the window and the lightning storm outside.

* * *

><p>Rachel's phone sang 'Defying Gravity' and she fished it out of her purse while she watched the boys stack the unchopped wood and cover it up with another tarp. Puck's mom swung the back door open and yelled at her son to get in out of the storm.<p>

"Yeah, I'm coming, Mom!" He hollered back.

"Hello?" Rachel answered the phone, holding both hands over it at one ear to protect it from the spray of rain being blown sideways by the wind.

"Rachel, it's Puck!" Kurt screamed in her ear. "He and Finn aren't answering their phones! Do you know where Puck is?"

_Oh no._ "I'm with him." Rachel held her arm up and waved the phone, calling to him over the rain. "Noah!" The boys turned. "It's Kurt!"

Finn squinted uneasily.

Lightning flashed like a sudden burst of sunlight, illuminating the back yard in a bright ray of momentary clarity. Behind the thick sheets of pouring rain, a bolt gutted through a nearby tree, shattering the bark with a deafening roar. Rachel felt it through the trembling ground, screaming and flinching backward out of the cover of the overhead tarp. Rain beat down on her in a rapid splatter as the struck tree tipped and tore through the tarp on its way down.

Puck slipped over the slick grass directly into the falling tree's path, but Finn shoved him hard out of the way, slipping forward himself. Puck fell back on the ground with a harmless thump while the huge old tree barreled down on Finn at an angle. The unmistakable sound of snapping bones cut over the storm, and Finn bellowed in pain. The torn tarp sloped, draped over him, and blocked out the damage.

"Finn!" Rachel rushed forward, hunching and slapping the tarp off of her head as she got closer, finally dropping to her knees and crawling over to him under it.

She barely reached him when Puck grabbed her by the waist and moved her aside, scrambling on his knees beside Finn. He punched at the tarp to see, and Rachel flashed her phone over there for light with shaking hands. She was distantly aware of a small voice coming from the speaker. Finn's forearm was trapped under the tree trunk, and he was gritting his teeth. Puck seized him, anchored his foot against the tree and yanked Finn as hard as he could. His arm released with a loud half-groan, half-scream from Finn, in tact but clearly broken.

Rachel cried as she and Puck hefted and assisted Finn out from under the fallen tarp and across the back yard to the house, but the storm raged around them and flushed her tears with rain. Her phone lay fallen and forgotten in the mud behind them.

* * *

><p>If there were nurses or metal medical shelves in Kurt's way, they were left behind him as rubble as he cannonballed through the hallways. He was so over the hospital. Over rushing there for Finn. Over his heart rate jumping so high he felt horribly lightheaded and dizzy like the time Finn convinced him <em>Project Runway<em> was cancelled by getting Artie to help him Photoshop a press release with the AfterElton header on top to spook him on April Fool's Day. He was that kind of shaky, only times a million.

Rachel's phone went straight to voicemail when he tried calling her back repeatedly and several minutes later he received a text from Puck himself, 'Finn hospital tree fell'. Leave it to Puck to be as vague as possible and not answer the phone when he tried to call him right back. He had rushed out of the house only stopping for his keys.

His warm change of clothes from earlier were a complete waste since he hadn't even thought about an umbrella as he rushed from the house to his Escalade and did the same from the parking garage to the hospital. He hadn't even thought to stop and tell Carole until he was already on the road, and his cell phone's worn battery gave out after that short exchange.

He rushed past the nurses station in the ER now until he spotted Rachel standing in front of a curtained off area biting her nails and looking like a rat that got caught in a drainage pipe. Puck was sitting on the floor along the wall and got to his feet as he spotted him.

"He's fine. Broke his arm." Puck said instantly.

"He what?" Kurt exclaimed shrilly, the rubber soles of his crutches barely able to keep him from toppling over. Rachel hurried over to them.

"The tree landed on him when he pushed me out of the way." Puck explained. "I haven't seen a break that gnarly since Coach Sylvester tried to double the size of her pyramid and Brittany landed on her ankle freshman year. My boy saved my life."

_His_ boy? Kurt pushed past him in frustration and ripped back the curtain of the partitioned area. If Finn belonged to anyone it wasn't the guy smirking about broken bones. Finn was sitting on the edge of a cheap cot, a wheeled tray pushed up to him as a female doctor managed his injured arm. His wince was slightly dimmed as he noticed Kurt with relief and joy and a dawning hesitation as his eyes tracked up and down his frazzled, wet, harried state.

Kurt's hair was a flat dripping helmet, his long brown sweater sleeves were glued to his thin arms, and his skinny jeans clung to his legs like a layer of black paint. Finn looked like he was contemplating the best way to say, 'You look like a drowning victim,' without getting slapped when he broke into another wince as the doctor adjusted him.

"Your arm is broken?" The question passed through numb lips flatly.

Finn grinned at him, actually _grinned_. "Yeah, I'm fine though."

"No, you're not!" The feeling returned to Kurt's voice with a high screech that would have been embarrassing if his boyfriend wasn't currently being prepped for a cast. The doctor turned in surprise. "Your arm is broken!"

Finn shrugged. "Yeah, but it's on my burned hand's side. It's my throwaway arm."

Kurt gaped. Giant blazing white stars spotted his vision. His fists were viselike around the handles of his crutches and his teeth nearly ground into powder. "Appendages are not disposable, Finn!"

"Well, if I hadn't been there it probably would have smashed Puck and Rachel like grapes, so I'm not complaining." He countered.

Puck looked at Rachel as he considered the grape analogy. "Puckleberry juice."

Rachel looked like she swallowed an egg.

"Really, I'm-"

Kurt knocked the words out of Finn, flinging his arms around his neck and carefully avoiding his hurt side, making his crutches tumble noisily to the tiled floor. Finn's good arm went around him. It was such a Finn thing to do to get skipped by Death and go stand in front of it later to protect a friend. Why couldn't Kurt love someone with a smaller sense of good will who selfishly thought only of himself and didn't care about anyone else? Oh yeah. Because then he would love Azimio and would be forced to jump off the nearest cliff.

"You must be Kurt." The doctor lifted a brow as he pulled back delicately and collected his crutches. "He's been asking for you nonstop. Thought he might have hurt his head too and gotten stuck on repeat."

Finn blushed. "I was worried." He gave Kurt a significant look, and oh yeah…

Now that he saw Finn was hurt but fixable his one track mind began to clear out the fog and make room for the giant flashing billboard in his brain. The one he had ignored as he sped dangerously through a storm to get there. His 'one step at a time' philosophy had reached a particularly nasty step.

He was next.

Sinking into the plastic chair next to the cot, he reached for his pounding head and forgot all about the good posture he trained his body to assume at all times to showcase dignity and self-respect. Right then he was just a rain soaked lump sitting at the top of Death's list. He signaled the doctor.

"Do you think I could get checked out too?" Kurt asked, tired voice heavy with defeat and exhaustion. He slumped low enough in his seat to drop his head back against the chair. "I got somewhat electrocuted earlier."

A beat of silence passed before his words sunk in and Finn nearly fell off the side of the bed, jerking so hard the tray rattled and the doctor jumped.

"WHAT?"


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

Every time Kurt tossed in his sleep Finn's hand found its way back under his shirt and over his belly. His palm was warm against his skin, and Kurt snuggled back against his chest. Maybe if they never got out of bed Death would get bored waiting for an opportunity to strike and leave him alone. Or he could end up dying in some humiliating sex way… Yeah, he was getting up in the morning.

"Kurt," Finn's murmur was scrambled up with sleep. "Dream wake you up…? See somethin'?"

Kurt twisted around lethargically and wrapped his arm around Finn's side. The hand on his stomach slid to his back. "No." He whispered. "Dad again."

Finn moaned sleepily in understanding, pushing a lazy kiss against his forehead. Kurt suspected that Burt had talked to Finn about the specifics of Kurt's vision and concluded that he was next.

Carole drove his escalade back from the hospital and Kurt sat in the back of his dad's truck watching Finn doodle messily on his new cast. He tried to get him to stop the tacky graffiti but after he saw his name inside a small heart he just dropped his head to Finn's shoulder and let him add the Bart Simpson head next to it. His dad glanced at him repeatedly in the rearview mirror as if he was worried he might spontaneously combust. With his current run of luck, he wouldn't have been surprised if a line of flames had shot across his arms without a stimulant.

It was late when they got back. Finn had followed Kurt into his room and neither Burt nor Carole said a word about it. Kurt had a feeling his father didn't mind the extra pair of eyes on him all night even if he did mind the hands. They climbed into bed and crashed, but every hour or so Burt would crack the door open and peer inside. Yep, Kurt was still alive, and they weren't doing anything.

"Sleep, baby…" Finn mumbled against his hair, pulling him even tighter against him. "I'll take care of you."

Kurt's eyelashes fluttered but he stared at the patch of t-shirt in his view, curling his fingers into it softly. That was the problem, though, wasn't it? Finn couldn't take care of him. When he tried to take care of Puck he broke his arm and almost got himself killed. In fact, Kurt didn't know when Death would make its move. It could try to get him in his sleep, strangle him with the sheets or have Finn roll on top of him and smother him to death. That was a nightly concern anyway.

It was dangerous staying so close to Finn. He was putting him in harm's way. If there was a tree coming for him, he didn't want Finn to push him out of the way and take the hit. He had taken enough hits lately as it was. He waited for the steady sound of his heavy breathing and the return of his light snores before gently pulling out of his embrace and rolling onto his back.

There was his father and Carole to think about too. He had no doubts Burt Hummel would willingly give his own life in exchange for his, but that was not a swap Kurt was willing to make. They knew he was next. Carole might still be skeptical, but she had looked at him a little differently at the hospital earlier that evening. It was a curious look. He suspected her sense of logic was beginning to weaken under the repeated 'accidents' affecting her son and his group of friends lately. She hardly suspected Kurt of initiating them, but even she had to have a limit as to how many things she could deem 'coincidence'.

That meant they would all be on the lookout for him. His danger would become their danger. He couldn't let anything else happen to the people he loved. This one he would do on his own.

Silently sliding out of bed, Kurt went to his closet and grabbed his overnight bag. 

* * *

><p>It was a miracle he was able to sneak out of the house and pull out of the driveway without being detected. His absence didn't go unnoticed long, though. In under twenty minutes his cell phone began ringing nonstop. The Caller ID bounced between 'Dad', 'Carole', 'Home', and 'Lover Boy' in a choppy pattern. Finn was particularly insistent, because his text inbox was filling up along with his call log. He didn't pick his phone up off of the passenger seat until he reached his destination though.<p>

Pulling the Escalade into the empty parking lot outside of the foreclosed skating rink, he scanned through his missed calls and checked out his texts first.

**From: Lover Boy**

_where r u?_

**From: Lover Boy**

_kurt ur freaking me out. Where did u go?_

**From: Lover Boy**

_this isn't funny. Why did u leave?_

**From: Dad**

_Answer the phone. Now._

That one was particularly unnerving. He had never disobeyed a direct order from his father before. He was going to be furious, but technically he hadn't read the text until now.

**From: Lover Boy**

_y aren't u answering the phone? R u ok?_

**From: Rachel**

_Kurt, your stepmother called me asking if you were at my house. Where are you? Are you all right?_

**From: Lover Boy**

_KURT WHERE R U?_

**From: Dad**

_Come home NOW!_

**From: Mercedes**

_Boy, I'm coming._

Kurt furrowed his brow. What?

There were a ton after that, but they were all variations of the same thing. They wanted to know where he was, if he was okay, and when he was coming home. Well, they weren't so much questions as orders to come home. He couldn't call them back until he knew what he was going to do though.

He relaxed against the seat as he went to his voicemail and tried to think about what his next move should be. As he punched in his password, he looked over at the closed skating rink with nostalgia. It was admittedly a very dorky hangout, but it was the one place in tiny Lima where the jocks and so-called McKinley elite wouldn't be caught dead at, so he used to go there all the time with Mercedes, Tina, and Artie.

He breathed through the temptation to cry thinking about Artie rolling around the rink in his wheelchair after Tina. She was a great skater, but he and Mercedes always clung to the wall and inched around the perimeter. Falling, even at that pace, was inevitable and the four of them would laugh hysterically until they crawled off to go sit at one of the tables and waste their quarters in the claw machine. It was a nice memory, but knowing that Tina and Artie would only exist within those memories now made his breathing shakier.

The place was closed down now, but for a while it had been their safe haven. He stared at the boarded up doors as the first voicemail started.

"_Kurt, where are you, man? This is not cool."_ Finn sounded semi-frantic and almost angry. _"I woke up, and you were just gone! Where are you? Call me back! Or better yet, come home! Or even better than that, call me so I can come get you. Too much sucky stuff could happen to you on the way back. God, Kurt… What are you doing?"_

His shoulders slumped at the tone of his voice. He didn't want to scare him, but scaring him was better than getting him killed wasn't it? The robotic voice introduced the next message.

"_Kurt, sweetheart,"_ Carole's voice came up next. _"Your father is really worried about you. Finn's in a state. He keeps saying something about you being next. I really don't understand what you boys have been thinking lately, but he's really upset. Please call and let us know you're okay."_

Then the undeniable voice of his father. _"Kurt Hummel, get your ass back home NOW!"_ Click. Uh-oh.

Someone knocked on his passenger side window, and he nearly jumped out of his skin, jerking and banging his elbow on his own door. Mercedes was standing outside of the car, frowning in at him. How in the world-

Kurt reached over and unlocked the passenger side, pulling on the handle to open it for her. Mercedes climbed in and looked out the windshield at the wet pavement from the storm the night before as Kurt studied her with confused surprise.

"How did you know I was here?" He asked.

She turned to him unimpressed. "Please. Remember when Karofsky was at his worst, and you were considering transferring to that private school, Dumplings or whatever."

"Dalton." Kurt corrected.

Mercedes waved him off. "Right. We sat out here for two hours discussing the pros and cons. Pros: No Karofsky."

"Cons: No you or Finn." Kurt recalled with a faint smile.

Mercedes nodded with an arched eyebrow. "This is where you do all of your deep parking lot thinking. Something told me the occasion called for it."

Kurt smiled in earnest, reaching over and taking her hand. He sighed and turned on his side, resting his head against the seat. "No one knows me like you do, Cedes."

She smiled back but the look was quickly replaced by a steady stare. "So you wanna tell me what you think you're doing? I know your family is worried about you." She glanced at the clock on the dash before Kurt shut off the engine. The sun was beginning to creep up to open the day, long pink streaks cutting over the dark sky with renewed light. "It is way too early for this kind of stress. You're lucky I didn't just tell Finn where you were when he called me earlier."

That would have defeated the whole purpose. "Thank you for that. And thank you for loving me. But I need you to leave. Being around me right now is dangerous."

"So what exactly is the plan then? You're going to go live in the middle of the woods and Unabomber it until Death either skips you or takes you?" Her tone suggested something less than admiration in her opinion of that. "You didn't tell any of the rest of us to go quarantine ourselves when it was our turn. Why should you be any different? No one likes a martyr, Kurt."

He could think of quite a few occasions where martyrdom was looked kindly upon. "That's debatable."

"Not now it isn't. Right now it's selfish." She accused. "You're my best friend. You're Finn's boyfriend. You're your father's only son and the last link he has to your mother. Do you think any of us would ever forgive ourselves if something happened to you? The whole world doesn't start and end with you, but occasionally ours do. You are not alone in this, Kurt, and you're not helping anybody by trying to be."

Kurt's eyes welled up, but he blinked the moisture away. "You are quite fabulous, Mercedes. And very bossy."

She shrugged. "I'm not going to win a Grammy for nothing."

He grinned and they both leaned forward, resting their foreheads on each other.

"I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me." He whispered sincerely.

She squeezed his hand. "I don't want _you_ to get hurt because of you."

They sat in silence for a while until Mercedes finally pulled back and leaned against her seat staring at the old building with the horrible paintings of skating silhouettes on the front. There was a distant look in her eyes.

"Remember when Artie used to-"

"-chase Tina in the rink," Kurt nodded laughing. He looked at her softly and his traitorous tear ducts dropped another line down his cheeks. "I'm so happy you're okay, Mercedes."

She fixed him with her best look of faux cockiness and let it slip after getting the smile she was going for. She nudged him. "Let's make sure you're okay now."

He nodded and started the car. "So do you trust me to follow me back in your car or do you need to ride shotgun to make sure I don't take off in a blur of speed for the Canadian border?"

She snorted. "Maybe I'd go with you if it was the Mexican border. I could go for a Mojito, not gonna lie."

He laughed quietly. If they got through this he would buy them all a round on him. 

* * *

><p>Alcohol certainly would have helped the arrival back home go smoother. His father was red faced and angry, Carole was awkwardly trying to settle Burt down, and Finn was avoiding eye contact and ignoring him. Kurt was still arguing with his dad about how he wasn't entirely convinced that coming back was such a wild idea when Finn slipped out of the room and went upstairs. It took a long lecture that ended with him having to give his car keys up and apologize twenty different ways for worrying them before he could go up too.<p>

His room was empty, so he went to Finn's, knocking softly and gently pushing the door open when he didn't get an answer. Finn was sitting up in bed with his legs stretched out and crossed in front of him. He was flipping through his ipod and pointedly not looking up despite Kurt's attempts to catch his eye.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting; perhaps a little more understanding from the one person in the house who fully understood what it meant to be knocking on Death's doorstep. Finn completely freezing him out was a bit of a surprise, and it made him nervous. Edging slowly over to the bed, he bit his lip and sat down beside him. Finn ignored him, scrolling through his playlists while the noisy rock blared out of his earbuds.

Taking a risk, Kurt reached over and pulled the right one out of his ear. Finn's jaw set, but after a moment's hesitation he pulled his headphones completely out and set his ipod aside.

"I'm sorry I worried you." Kurt apologized sincerely. Perhaps there was a better way he could have gone about his short-lived attempt at martyrdom.

Finn ducked his head, staring at his lap. "Were you trying to get yourself killed?"

Kurt's eyes widened. "Of course not!"

"Then I don't get it." Finn protested. "Why would you do that? Someone has to interweave-"

"Intervene."

"Whatever! You know what I mean!" Finn finally looked at him, eyes set in a hard squint that made Kurt swallow. His frustration was a lot higher than he originally guessed. "So how do you intervene yourself? We're so close to all of this being over, and you sneak off in the middle of the night without telling me! I woke up to your dad shaking me and asking where you were! Do you have any idea how terrifying that was? You weren't answering your phone!"

Finn pushed away and got up, putting the bed between them as the words he allowed out swayed his mood more and more out of control. Kurt shrunk in on himself.

"You could have been dead! I thought that you might be…" The second the admission left his lips, the color drained out of his face and his breath seemed to run out. His eyes glazed with tears, and Kurt physically ached.

Crawling over the bed, he got to his feet and stood in front of him. Finn shook his head, but he reached out and wrapped his arms around him before he could legitimately protest. He was stiff in his embrace and didn't relax even as Kurt pulled his head back enough to look up at him. If anything, he grew more tense as their eyes locked.

"Kurt, you can't do that to me." Finn stared down, eyes dark in earnest.

Kurt nodded immediately, folding his hands over his face. "I'm sorry. You're right. I'm sorry." He repeated himself as he let the weight of Finn's hurt look wash over him. He felt horrible. "I'm sorry, Finn. I'm sorry. I-"

Finn's arms lifted quickly as he grabbed his face and kissed him hard. His tongue swept over Kurt's mid-apology, probing insistently as he deepened the kiss.

His breath was hot against his lips as he nudged his nose and looked him in the eyes seriously, voice a husky whisper. "I love you, Kurt. You had my back when it was me that was next. You gotta let me do that for you. I sort of have a plan for us to be happy for a long time. It involves you being alive. And me too. So you think you could, like, not give me any more heart attacks, because I super know what Burt felt last year now. And, yeah, it sucks."

Kurt smiled and ignored the tears in his eyes. They were a permanent fixture these days. "Deal."

Dawn had arrived, and the beginning warmth of the sun cut softly through the thin curtains. He hugged Finn tightly letting himself calm down in the safe moment he was in.

"Stay with me." Finn mumbled as he curled his arms securely around him.

"Not going anywhere." Kurt whispered into his chest, breathing evening out. They could afford to rest, and for a little while, held and mellow against Finn, the approaching shadows felt far away.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N**: The next chapter will be the LAST. Thanks for the reviews and alerts!

**Chapter Fifteen**

Kurt woke slowly, aware first of Finn's lips on his. He hummed contentedly and wrapped his arms around his neck before blinking slowly against the morning. Finn laid back against the bed and Kurt took a deep breath of musky Finn scented air as he turned his head on the pillow to look at him, disheveled hair and all.

"Hey." Finn reached under the covers and laced their fingers together.

Kurt leaned over and pecked his lips again.

"Any dreams?" Finn asked, and Kurt knew he wasn't talking about the recurring one he had where he played the lead in Swan Lake and had roses thrown at his feet on stage by Cher and Adam Lambert.

He shook his head. Finn brought a hand to his face and pushed back his hair. Fear was busy occupying Kurt's mind with an endless array of gory scenarios he might find himself in. He was regretting agreeing to watch _1,000 Way to Die _with Finn last semester all over again. But with Finn's fingers in his hair and his dark eyes intent on him, a conflicting feeling of safety settled next to his nerves.

A knock at the door brought them fully awake. "Boys, breakfast." Carole informed them, footsteps carrying her back down the hall.

Finn got to the kitchen much sooner than Kurt who needed to shower, change, and moisturize first. When he did he was surprised to see his father still there. It was almost 11:30, and he was always long gone by then. School was out but graduation was coming up, and in the days they had free Kurt hadn't seen his father at home this late once. He hoped that didn't mean he had more lecturing coming his way.

"Sit down, Kurt." Burt set his coffee cup on the counter, and Finn looked up from his French toast warily. Kurt caught his worried expression, and suddenly thoughts of how their activities earlier might have carried through the house raced through his head. Ashen, Kurt sat down.

"You know I've already apologized. Not sure how many languages I can say it in." He began, really hoping the lecture would be about that. "I'm sorry. Je suis désolé. Yo siento-"

"It's not about that." His dad cut him off before he could get to his German apology.

Oh great.

"I got a courtesy call from Karofsky's arresting officer this morning." He went on.

Kurt's mind abruptly halted trying to come up with snappy retorts as to why it was none of his business what he and Finn did in private. Good thing too, because one of those remarks went something like, 'We won't be pretending we don't share a bed when we live together in New York in a couple of months'. That would have been bad for a couple of reasons. He wasn't sure his father even informed Carole about her son's change in plans. He knew Finn hadn't. Also, the dangerous impulse to blurt something both embarrassing and unhelpful meant he was spending too much time with Finn.

"What's going on?" Finn asked.

Burt sighed heavily. He wasn't happy. "Karofsky and the other four boys were released on bail today. He called to give us a heads up in case any of them get a wild hair and try to do something stupid."

'Wild hair'; that was a nice way of saying 'decided to give assault and battery another shot'. Perfect.

"Ah shit." Finn deadpanned.

"Finn!" Carole chastised.

"Sorry." He glanced at her sheepishly before turning to Kurt. "It's just-That has to be it, right? Your thing. No way can them getting out at the same time it's your turn be a coincidence. They're going to try something."

Kurt contemplated that scenario. "Maybe…" Going Round Two with the goon squad was far from appealing, but at least he would know what to look for.

"Well, look, you're staying with me." Burt said. "I don't want to hear any argument either. Go get your stuff and let's go."

Kurt eyed him skeptically. "Do you really think a garage is the safest place to be? Mr. Schuester was almost killed by a single bag of tools. The shop is one big hazard. I may as well put on my Sunday best and ask Death out on a date. Our children would have the most bedazzled sickles."

"Don't be ridiculous." Burt grabbed his paper bag lunch. "Your bedazzler is broken."

Finn chortled but choked on it abruptly at Kurt's frown.

"Come on, I mean it." Burt hurried him on. "You'll stay in the office. No tools. Bring a book or one of those fashion magazines so you can circle all the stuff you want."

Kurt's eyes lit up. "Can I buy the stuff I want?"

"No. But you can show Carole and the two of you can discuss thrifty ways to buy the same looking outfit for thirty bucks." Burt burst his bubble.

Kurt got up from the table, setting him with his most fierce bitchy face before leaving the kitchen to get a magazine to do just that. A bag full of Vogue back issues and his phone and charger later, he was back downstairs meeting Finn at the front door, scowling as his father honked the horn for him outside. He pressed a hand on Finn's chest and stood on his tiptoes to kiss him briefly.

Finn rubbed Kurt's upper arms. "Mom has me dropping her off at Aunt Marie's so I can bring the car back. I'll go straight to the shop after that." He promised.

Kurt gave him a thin smile and nodded reassuringly. It must not have been all that reassuring though, because Finn's shoulders slumped and he looked off toward the kitchen.

"I'm going to tell my mom to forget it. She can drive herself." He backpedaled.

"Finn." Kurt laid both palms flat against his chest as he tried to settle him. "I'll be with my dad. It's fine. I'll see you in forty minutes." He shrugged the time off like it was nothing. He hoped it was. There was no way he could have smothered Finn harder when his name was at the top of the list, but he thought he could handle himself.

Finn seemed to consider him a moment but shook his head, face tight with misgivings. "No. No. I don't like this. I'm going to tell Burt he can go to work by himself. And Mom can drive herself, and I'll look after you here. It's safer here just you and me. I'll take care of you-"

"Sweetie," Kurt stretched upward again, catching his face and capturing his lips. "It's forty minutes." And besides, his dad would see red if Finn went out there and 'told' him what Kurt was going to do instead of following his wishes. "I love you." He gripped his shoulders with a tight squeeze and another short kiss before falling back on his heels. "I'll see you soon."

He let his hand linger on his chest as he walked through the door but didn't look back. If he kept moving then maybe Finn wouldn't lose it and run after them or something equally dramatic. Knowing Finn, the second Burt started getting after him he would start blurting stuff about what they did when they went upstairs together. Nope, nope, nope. He needed to leave.

As they pulled out of the driveway, Finn stood on the stoop, face devoid of even a hint of a smile. Kurt did his best to balance his worry out with a confident smile and a flirty wave, but as soon as he and his father were pulled onto the street his smile slipped. He had a really bad feeling about today. 

* * *

><p><strong>From Mercedes:<strong>

_How you doin, boo?_

Kurt contemplated that as he bobbed one leg over the other behind his dad's desk in the office. He was bored, sleepy and scared; all good things since they meant he was still alive.

**To Mercedes:**

_Good good! shop w/Dad. No 'signs' yet. Love u!_

He could see his dad in a far corner of the garage with one of the guys as they talked around the hood of an old Honda. It was hideous. The owner needed to trade up, sell, or burn it. The rest of the garage was empty for lunch, but in a half hour it would be packed back up with ugly stained jumpsuits and testosterone. Something he didn't altogether mind when he and Finn were helping out, taking turns watching each other bend over hoods. He had quite a few shameful fantasies involving Finn and these cars. If only everyone else would just clear out for a few hours and leave them to it.

He was squinting at an Armani suit in the magazine and wondering how well he could duplicate it with dreams of Mood and access to a quality sewing machine, when his phone vibrated on the desk. He grinned devilishly and answered it.

"Hello, lover boy." He made his voice extra saucy since those fantasies of Finn and cars had pretty much been running through the back of his mind the whole time since he got there.

"Hey, baby."

Kurt heard the clear sound of a passing car in the ambience and frowned. "I hope you're not calling from the road. You know I hate it when you talk and drive. Your multitasking skills leave much to be desired. Hang up. Look at the road."

Finn chuckled. "I haven't left yet. Mom needed help lugging the stuff she brought over for Aunt Marie's charity thingy into the house. You're okay?"

Kurt relaxed. "Yes." He looked down at his lap and flipped to the next page of his magazine idly. "Just thinking about bending over the hood of a suped up 2010 Lexus LFA and asking you to help me change the oil."

Finn paused uncomfortably. "Um. Boner."

Kurt snickered with satisfaction. "I'll see what I can do about that when I see you."

"Mean." Finn scolded and thinking about the women he was stuck with for the time being, Kurt had to grin to himself. Yep. It was.

"Okay. You can take care of it on your own. I'll keep my hands to myself. If you know what I mean." He teased suggestively.

Finn groaned. "Hanging up now. Love you."

"Love you more." Kurt replied with a smile in his voice and hung up before he could protest. It was true after all. It wasn't actually possible for anyone to love anyone else as much as he loved Finn. That was just crazy nonsense from Lala Land. His love was a vain one.

He went back to his magazine and didn't look up as he heard someone enter the office, figuring it was his father until they spoke.

"Hummel."

His body recognized the voice before his mind did, flinching hard and dropping the magazine to the floor. His eyes snapped up to take in David-freaking-Karofsky in the doorway. A string of undignified cuss words linked together in his mind, frightened and belligerent. He looked to the window automatically but the garage looked completely empty now. What? His dad wouldn't have left for lunch without telling him. What happened to keeping him in his sights?

He got to his feet and tried to make it look natural to step backward in order to put the chair between them at the very least. The task of appearing cool was made harder by his strained hobble without his crutches under his arms. No, no, no, no, no. Karofsky could not be the obstacle to get across. He was a very heavy, tall obstacle with muscle mass that sort of chilled out and laughed at his own thin arms. Why didn't he hit the gym more? He could have been a gym-whore-gay instead of such a Broadway-loving-fashion-obsessed-stereotype gay. Femme versus David Bunyan. Yeah, the garage was a great idea.

He forced his voice to stay even and strong. "All I have to do is scream for my dad, and I'm sure he'll kill you with a wrench in a very interesting way. The creators of _Saw_ will think 'hmm, why didn't I think of that'."

His eyes flicked to the window in search of his dad, but the garage was still empty. This was bad. He talked big, but it was a front with no means to protect himself in a way that allowed him to keep his distance at the same time. Right now he had his fingernails, and…no. So many 'no's.

"I only came here because I didn't know your number, and I had to get to you somehow." Karofsky was blank faced, which was better than a growl at least.

Kurt lifted his chin haughtily, clinging to his disgust to shield his dismay. "What is this? Another apology? You almost had my boyfriend burned alive. You're not forgiven. Live with it. And if you think I'll ask my dad to drop the charges because of a technicality you can just forget it. Death might be circling us a little more closely than others, but you still gave him a concussion and shoved us in a trunk. You'll have to forgive _me_ if I'm not too keen on hugging it out."

"No." Karofsky exhaled in annoyance. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

Kurt shook his head at him in aggravation. "What? Apologizing? Because I just said I'll forgive you the day Clinton Kelly approves a Snooki outfit. That means never, David. Never."

"No." Karofsky replied. "The death thing. Uh, you said I was like on a list or something." He shrugged, looking at the wall and trying to act like he was bothering himself being there. Like Kurt wanted him there at all.

"Yes." Kurt snapped.

Karofsky dragged his eyes back to him stiffly. "So what? Am I like next or what?"

"No. I am. But you're after me. Or Jacob or Azimio." He thought about it. "I don't really know. You fell after me, so I don't know the order."

"Fell?"

"Into a gator pit."

Karofsky scoffed. "You're a freak, Hummel."

"You're not the only one of that opinion. I tried contacting the other survivors from the newspaper articles, but they all laughed or cussed me out. I don't know how to help them, and I haven't gotten any visions about them either, so they're on their own. Like you. I think I'll keep my freak-isms to myself."

"What? No. I…" He mouthed at a loss.

"Yes? Forget how to ask for help?" Kurt felt a little more sure of himself with every bitchy retort. "Or is it just asking for help from someone you've actively tortured for years that's making you tentative to reach out?"

Karofsky's face darkened. "Look, man, I know I've done some messed up stuff. Shoving Hudson in that trunk was stupid. You just pissed me off, okay! I don't think I deserve to die for it!"

Kurt's eyelids fluttered with a half-shrug. "Matter of opinion."

He was satisfied by the fearful look in Karofsky's eyes at that. He didn't actually think he could let Karofsky or anyone die if he could help it. That was too much like passive manslaughter or something equally draining on his conscience. He rolled his eyes.

"Here." He grabbed his phone off the desk and jerked it out toward him. Karofsky eyed it like it was a grenade whose pin just got taken out. Kurt shook it. "Put your number in here. If I see anything about you or Azimio I'll call. Other than that just exercise common sense, as difficult as that may be for you. Don't walk under ladders. Don't party on a rooftop. Be cautious and boring. Any adrenaline junkie moves will probably land you in a piano box."

Karofsky met his eyes, and Kurt glared back. He took the phone and Kurt shifted as he saved his number to his contacts. When he handed it back, Kurt was careful not to touch him. His ignorance might have been catching. Karofsky frowned, looked off to the side and ducked out of the office, making for the back employee entrance and exit.

Kurt caught movement in the corner of his eye and turned to look out the window where his father was making his way back into the garage, looking at the figure who just left his office. He headed over, and Kurt took several deep breaths. So Karofsky wasn't his downfall. Yet at least.

"Who was that?" Burt asked, rubbing the oil off of a wrench with an old rag that was probably soaked in too many germs to name. "Why the hell did they use the employee entrance?"

"Karofsky." Kurt let it drop nonchalantly. That's what his dad got for abandoning him there for the two minutes he actually needed him.

Burt's head snapped up. "What?"

He dropped the rag, getting a firmer grip on the wrench in his hand and started out the way Karofsky went. Kurt's eyes bulged and he hurried forward with one crutch under his arm.

"Dad, dad!" He grabbed his arm, gaze falling to the large wrench in his fist as he recalled his threat to Karofsky. "Wow. Scary accurate. Maybe my psychic powers are spreading. Or I could be a mentalist."

"What? _Kurt._" Burt tried to shake him off, but Kurt dug his good heel into the floor and yanked on him, pulling him back into the office.

"Calm down. Slow that racing heart." Kurt forced him over to his desk and down into his chair. "He didn't try anything. Just wanted to beg for my protection. Apparently being a freak gives me a marketable commodity. I should open a booth, wear bangles, and charge for these signs."

Burt was still eyeing the door like he wanted to fly through it with a semi-automatic weapon and spray the garage. "Who does that kid think he is? After everything he's put you through he comes here for your help?"

"Yes," Kurt agreed, sitting on the desk and reaching for his itchy ankle uselessly. Stupid brace. "It's all very ill mannered. Even battered wives get flowers before they're asked to make dinner again. His life should be worth at least a coupon to a spa weekend."

Burt snorted.

The itch was getting unbearable, so Kurt braced his injured ankle on the desk and carefully began removing the brace. It came off relatively painless, and he set it aside to scratch delicately at his lower calf. That was so much better.

Burt was going to set the wrench down on the desk but thought better of it at the thick grease on the head. "Dropped the rag." He grumbled and moved to get up, but Kurt shoved him back down by the shoulder.

"I got it."

Swinging his legs over the desk, he left his brace and grabbed his crutches. His hurt leg stayed up as he maneuvered through the office door to get to the discarded rag beyond it.

"Careful on that leg, Kurt!" Burt warned him gruffly. "You wanna know how easy it is to turn a sprain into a break?"

"No!" Kurt carefully hopped over to the rag. "And don't start reminiscing about your glory days on the football field and the array of manly wounds you garnered while you brought your team to endless victories."

"Your problem is that you don't appreciate a good football regaling." Burt scolded him half-seriously.

Kurt was careful to bend slowly as he retrieved the nasty rag. He would need to wash his hands in acid. "Yes. Well. Finn will be here soon, and you can regale him to your heart's content."

A strong gust of wind blew through the garage bays, rattling along the mobile red tool drawers and blowing the dirty cloth in his hand. Kurt looked out through the raised mechanical doors, but it looked bright blue out there. No sign of rain. As he turned back another gust blew, and the half-opened door to the office swung closed with a bang.

Burt immediately made his way to the door, yanking up the cheap blinds over the small window as he reached for the knob. Kurt watched the knob twist back and forth uselessly, the door staying immobile in its frame.

"Kurt?" Burt asked confused, like he thought he might be trying to pull another stunt. "Did you lock the door?"

"No…" He looked off toward the open bay doors, a chill tingling up his spine. "Dad-"

An echoing metallic clattering reverberated off the cavernous walls of the large open building as a heavy support chain for one of the rigs came apart and fell from the ceiling, banging into Kurt and knocking him over as it smashed to the ground. Kurt went down hard, crutches falling around him and his injured ankle coiling in the heavy chain.

"Kurt!" His father twisted the doorknob more forcefully. It rattled in short left and right swivels.

Kurt winced and grit his teeth against the sting in his leg but tried to calm him. "It's okay, Dad. I'm fine."

He delicately began pulling his leg out from under the steel pile, but the long linked together line began rapidly pulling back as the pulley system it was attached to began cranking in reverse. The loose loop around his ankle tightened with a snap as the chain tensed and reeled backward. Kurt fell flat on his back as the chain scratched along the cement and dragged him along the floor. The brief numb period passed instantly as the chain stopped with a sudden loss of momentum and left him leashed where his brace should have been. A sharp throbbing ache frayed his nerves and communicated desperate snaps of pain to his brain. The chain gave a final jerk, running between two tall tool chests, and he slid forward another couple of feet. The heel of his foot, covered only in a thin black sock, rammed into one of the wall-like chests as he came to another abrupt stop.

For a moment he laid with his eyes squeezed shut, back arching off the floor and right leg singing with awful shocks. He sat forward and tried pulling it free but cried out at the pain of moving it. The chain was wound like a tight collar around the sprain and locked him in place. A heavy presence caught his attention at the top of his vision, and he fell back on his elbows, doing a double take at the space above him. His stomach dropped.

He was directly under one of the sports cars the mechanics had suspended on the hydraulic jack six feet in the air for easy access while they worked. Its underbelly hovered over him, the underside of a two ton wrecking ball.

"Dad." He called, the frightened weakness in his limps extending to his voice. The lifts on either side of the car gave a long strained wheeze as though the pressure were being released. Kurt filled his lungs and screamed. "Dad!"

Far behind him he could hear his father throwing his weight into the door trying to get out. He sat up again, scooted forward toward his ankle and tried to wiggle his foot free. The extra contact with the area stung worse. The chain dug into him, leaving indentures in his bruised skin. There was no slack whatsoever to play with, and Kurt gave up, reaching forward and grabbing the short piece of chain sticking out from between the two steel chests blocking his way that weighed in close to a thousand pounds each.

The tension in it was tight and he couldn't tug it backward even an inch to move out of the way of the car above. Maybe he could climb over them though. They were wide five and a half feet tall blocks. He could pull himself up and climb between the gap of their tops and the car's bottom. He lifted himself to his knees and reached to anchor himself up. The hydraulic jacks gave a snap and a whistle, losing their set height and shrinking downward with a heart-stopping shriek. The car dropped a foot through the air with a horrendous metal groan, front bumper popping off as it clipped the edge of the top of the chests and closed the distance between them. Kurt screamed, dropping to the floor and shrinking in on himself. As soon as his forearms hit the concrete, the chain gave a final tug, slamming his right leg flush against the chests. The leash tightened and crushed in around his bone.

He cried out in agony, tears prickling his eyes in a harsh sting of pain and fear. "Dad _please_…" His voice broke as he gulped down a sob before pleading for him. "Help me!"

The jacks gave a terrifying moan.

"Hey." A familiar voice called from the direction of the large garage entrance out of view. Finn's voice.

Glass shattered and clinked over the cement as the wrench and a paperweight were broken through the window of the office door. Finn jumped as Burt's arm shot through the opening, going down to the outer knob to work the door open.

"The crank! Finn, unhook the chain from the crank!" Burt shouted.

Finn's eyes became wide plates of confusion. "Whoa! What?"

"Kurt's under the car!" Burt yelled as the door finally gave and slipped open.

Finn seemed to notice the broken rig for the first time and gasped sharply at the implication. He immediately shot forward, but Burt was out of the office and yelling at him furiously.

"No! Finn, the crank! He's stuck!"

The instinct to run to Kurt was almost too much, but Finn turned on his heels and ran back along the wall where the chain was rolled up along the giant spool and tense as a tightrope. His hands were yanking and searching for a way to unravel it before his eyes fully absorbed the mechanics of it. Burt ran toward Kurt. The jacks shook and creaked, losing more of their stature. With a sound like an engine roaring apart from a plane, they hunched farther down and the car on top shot down several feet, a hairsbreadth away from Kurt's skull.

He flattened himself down as far as he could, crying into the cement and shaking. Burt reached him, dropping to the floor and looking under.

"Dad!" Kurt sobbed into his hand, cheek flat against the ground.

"Here, son!" Burt reached under the car, and Kurt extended his hand for him. Burt clasped it and pulled, but a tortured cry came from Kurt and he didn't budge away from the tool chests. Burt lifted himself back to his knees shouting. "Finn, now!"

He shot to his feet, legs moving out of sight and Kurt panicked. "Dad?"

"I have to find another jack!" His father answered, throwing stuff out of his way and burrowing for anything that might help.

The jacks gave an eerie squeak, weakening towards total failure. There was no more room for error. If the car dropped again it would crush him underneath.

"Finn!" Kurt screamed, voice shredded from terror. "It's falling!"

Finn hollered in frustrated panic, yanking and tugging at the crank, too tightly wound to have any effect on it. He pounded on the large red factory sized button protruding from the wall next to it that was supposed to release the chain, but it did nothing. He spun around and his heart slammed against his ribcage as his eyes landed on the handle of something sticking out of a tool drawer several feet away. Taking a high risk, he abandoned the crank and ran for it.

"Hold on!" He ripped the drawer out so hard it clattered loudly to the floor, sending heavy various tools scattering across the concrete. He stooped and grabbed the long red handle of the tool he wanted. _Yes!_ Running hard for the chain, he dropped to his knees and pulled back the handles of the bolt cutters. "Baby, when I say crawl, GO!"

He lowered the sharp edges to the thick chain and began squeezing down on the handles with all his might. Burt caught what he was doing and his eyes lit, stopping his search. He ran back to Kurt and bent low to the ground, extending both hands for him. Tears wet his cheeks and he jittered all the way to his core, but Kurt reached for his father and clasped his hands.

"I love you, Dad."

Kurt read his nearly paralyzing horror easily. "Hush up, kid."

Finn grit his teeth, muscles in his arms shaking to their full capacity. The jacks hissed out the last bit of their power, and with a deafening snap, the old bolt cutters broke through the chain with a thud and a split.

"Now!" He shouted.

Kurt pushed his knees against the floor, and Burt hauled him out by both arms. His feet cleared the car a second before the weakened jacks snapped under the weight. Kurt crawled into his dad's side as the car crashed down onto the ground with a heavy bounce, slamming against the concrete with enough force to elicit a shrill cacophonous noise like dozens of knives being scraped along a chalkboard. The tail end of the chain was caught under it, beaten down by the gargantuan hammer. Kurt flinched against Burt, stiff and trembling uncontrollably. As the car settled with a monstrous groan, Kurt burst into tears. Flinging his arms around Burt's neck, he cried against his shoulder and welcomed the nonsensical hushing noises being offered to him as his father rubbed his back and held him tight.

Across the garage, all of the air expelled from Finn and he slumped against the floor, dropping the bolt cutters with a clang and sitting dizzily in his spot. Kurt blinked through the rivers streaming down his cheeks and looked over at him, his breaths hitching shortly as much as Finn's were slow and deep. There they were three funerals and a lot of damage later. Still alive.

Finn got to his feet and ambled over, looking like a man who just walked eighty miles through a desert without water. He fell beside them, and Kurt reached out, squeezing his hand tightly the second it landed in his. The energy seemed to drain out of him completely with the contact and Finn dropped sideways against Burt on his other side; the man's free arm moved from patting Kurt to encircle Finn too. Faces pressed against Burt's shoulders, they held hands and let themselves catch their breath. Death had come for them. But they had made it.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: **Final chapter! I had a lot of fun writing this fic. Thanks for giving this freaky concept a shot! lol I've appreciated all of the reviews, alerts, and favorites. Thanks so much for reading!

**Chapter Sixteen**

It was getting kind of hard not to touch Finn at every given opportunity. If his hands weren't on him, his mouth was. If his mouth wasn't, his eyes were, and they did more to Finn than his hands and mouth combined. Puck called it 'eye fucking' and told him to cut it out twice on two separate occasions while he was watching them play video games. Well, watching Finn play and periodically licking his lips. Kurt couldn't even be embarrassed about it. There was something about almost dying that lowered his inhibitions and compelled him to appreciate Finn in every way he was capable.

The good thing was Finn was feeling the same way. He got as much as he gave and then some. The bad news, their move to New York wasn't for another two and a half months and to avoid mortifying themselves and their parents, their eyes were doing a lot of the work their hands and mouths wanted to. They didn't have that problem at the moment however.

Puck's back yard was packed with McKinley's Class of Lima Loser graduates for the first of many graduation parties that would probably get raided by police by the end of the night. His mom had taken his sister and gone to his aunt's house, her graduation gift to her son. Kurt couldn't think of a worse person to be given free reign and no supervision, but he wasn't complaining. Finn was sitting in one of the long lawn chairs in the grass away from the pool with his legs stretched out in front of him, his hands exploring Kurt's butt as he straddled him. Kurt's hands framed his face as he tilted his head and ran his tongue along Finn's teeth. They had been making out for…an undetermined amount of time.

It was getting hard to remember a time before their mouths were steaming against each other, tasting and nibbling. So much PDA would have normally given Kurt hives, but he was a little buzzed from the keg, Finn felt absolutely wonderful underneath him, and they had the advantage of being at a Puck hosted party, making it a safe zone. If anyone gave them trouble they would get kicked out or a kicked ass, depending on gender.

Unless, of course, they were Mercedes Jones.

Aiming a squirt gun at them, she fired. A thin stream of cold water doused their faces apart. Kurt blinked, pulling out of his hunch, but by the time he came out of his Finn Hudson Brain Fog, Finn was already trying to catch water in his mouth from her attack.

Kurt wiped the moisture from his eyes and shot a testy look at her. "Do you have any idea how much this top cost me?"

She snorted. "Who cares? You were about to ruin your pants."

Kurt was packing a semi, so she wasn't entirely off. He blushed an unflattering shade of red, looking like Miss Piggy in a rage.

Finn caressed his thighs with a shrug, squeezing the higher he went. "We could always ditch the pants."

Kurt bit his bottom lip, because Finn's hotness knew no bounds. Except for those puffy vests. They were really starting to grind on Kurt's nerves. He was considering burning them all before they moved to the city.

"No way." Puck appeared beside Mercedes with a plastic cup in his hand. "You two snog whores aren't flaking on my party to go have rainbow sex in my room."

Kurt carefully maneuvered so that he was sitting sideways on Finn's lap. "As if I would ever let my bare flesh touch anything in your bedroom. You could probably catch herpes from inhaling the air."

"Damn straight." Puck snickered as though it were a badge of honor.

Mercedes wrinkled her nose. "You do know you're nasty right?"

Puck moved up beside her, directing his pelvis at her hips. "Nasty for you, sugar momma."

"Ew." She raised her palm to his face and stepped away as Finn laughed.

"Noah." Rachel bumped into him and a couple of cups off of the top of the big pile in her arms fell to the grass. "Are you aware that the underage drinking here is nearly at a hundred percent? This is no small party. I think we should start asking people their weight so we can properly calculate the amount of alcohol they may ingest without being poisoned, wrecking their kidneys or _going blind_."

Puck popped a hand over her mouth. "Quiet, half-pint, you're ruining my buzz." He knocked all the empty cups in her arms to the ground and her jaw dropped. "No cleaning up either. I took everyone's keys and I've got a buddy system going, all right? Party, Rach. This is the last time you have to see any of these douchebags."

"Not true, Noah. I'll still see you occasionally for Shabbat dinner."

"Thanks, Berry, but I wasn't actually lumping myself in with the douchebags." He stared at her until she looked properly chagrined.

She turned her appraising look to Kurt instead; sitting in Finn's lap with his hair mussed, his cheeks rosy, and his lips royally abused. She huffed. "Kurt, really, you were once a man of dignified restraint."

Yep. Rachel's survivor's high had definitely faded. She was back to her anal retentive nose-in-the-air self. Just like they liked her. A lot of things had returned to normal in the past few weeks. Puck had started coming over again, coming back to life a little at a time. Kurt had gone shopping with Mercedes twice and hadn't flinched around cars, a get-back-on-the-horse move that he was particularly proud of himself for accomplishing without a decade in therapy. He heard from Rachel that Mr. Schuester was thinking up ways to recruit new members and fill the Glee Club back up for next year. As a whole, they weren't crying as much. Though the sadness was there, it was becoming more manageable, and the healing process was underway.

The strangest part in the last couple of weeks was Karofsky, Azimio, and Jacob. He hadn't seen anything pertaining to them and as far as he knew, no unspeakable 'accident' had befallen any of them. He had heard that a couple of the aquarium survivors had died in mysterious welding accidents. They were two of the people he had tried to contact, but he hadn't seen anything about them and his warnings had been rejected so he refused to shoulder any blame about their deaths, losing sleep over it only a few nights. His classmates seemed to be A-okay though, proven by Jacob running around the party filming everything for his vlog and the arrival of Karofsky and Azimio in the crowded back yard. He didn't know what to make of that.

He also didn't know how comfortable he was having those two anywhere near him. Their hearing wasn't for another few weeks and he would just as soon not see them before that. Finn noticed them at the same time. He stiffened under Kurt.

"What the hell are they doing here?" He asked angrily. Kurt was glad he was weighing him down or he might have shot up and been across the yard by now. Anger made him impulsive and combative.

Puck followed his glare and made a face. "Speaking of douchebags. I got this." He headed off with Rachel at his side. Kurt couldn't hear them as they reached the jocks but saw Rachel pointing in their faces, her mouth running a million miles a minute.

"That girl's like a Chihuahua." Mercedes observed. "Has no idea the difference between her and two big Rottweilers."

Kurt knew it. But Puck, being the Pit Bull that he was, had her back as she wagged her finger in their stunned faces.

"You know, it actually looks pretty nice out here." He looked around, appreciating something that wasn't attached to Finn for the first time since he got there. Finn hesitantly drew his eyes away from Puck and Rachel's Jock Population Control mission and looked around, snaking an arm around Kurt's waist.

The sky was dark, dotted with a speckle of bright stars. Puck had tiki lights set up on strings that hung from poles around the perimeter of the back yard. The pool was lit up and the people who hadn't brought a suit were jumping in fully clothed or fully _not_. It was a cheerful atmosphere. Everyone was saying goodbye with a final major hangover and happy to move on. High school was over. They made it. Lima hadn't eaten their souls. Just sucked them out a little bit.

"Porcelain."

Kurt looked up in shock to see Sue Sylvester standing nearby, curling her lip at all of the drunken debauchery she would no doubt enjoy calling the cops on. She crooked her finger for him to come to her. He felt like a minion being summoned by Count Dracula but wasn't sure there was a way to not go. He shared a look with Finn who looked confused and a little alarmed.

"Uh, I'll get us another drink." He hesitated as they wiggled themselves up. "It'll probably be water though. Coach Sylvester scares me."

Kurt gave him a half-smile and squeezed his hand. Mercedes took one look at the track suit wearing villainess and scooted off with Finn. Coward. Kurt walked over to his former Cheerio coach, wary and alone.

"Coach Sylvester!" He gave her a practiced smile. "How may I help you?"

Sue waved at his strain. "Calm down, Minnie Mouse, I'm not here to bust you and your delinquent comrades. It's enough for me to know I'll never have to see any of you mongrels in my school again. I'll undoubtedly spy castoffs from the bottom of the barrel around town checking out my groceries and digging for food out of trash bins like overgrown rats, but that's a problem for another day. Here it is. I have uncovered some disturbing news about your devilry that I didn't think could wait."

"My devilry?" Kurt asked cautiously. "This isn't about my sexuality is it, because I find you crashing a high school party to try to 'straighten me out' rather alarming."

"Oh, Tom Cruise Jr., how many times must I tell you I don't care who you bone as long as it doesn't involve any actual animal bones? That's a step towards witchcraft and just like my ancestors in Salem, I have no patience for it."

Kurt narrowed his eyes. "Okay. What is it then?"

"Your premonitions, Porcelain. Death's list isn't written in a line. It's written in a circle." She said, her head hunched toward him.

All of the air went out of the party. "What do you mean?"

"After losing three of my star cheerios, I looked into their deaths. Their common connection? You. Through the help of my contacts at NASA and the Underground Group of Lascivious Youngsters I was able to determine the depth and reality of this pattern. Also, Ben Israel's YouTube channel helped. I looked up the same things you must have. When I took it to William to verify, though, he seemed surprised by something in my findings. This torture happy Death cretin finds the people who evade It and kick their buckets one by one, correct?"

Kurt nodded but everything in him was telling him not to listen. He didn't want to follow this trail, didn't want to know what she did. Even as his impulses pled with him to run, he noticed Puck was now alone with Karofsky and Azimio. Rachel was standing a few feet away with Mr. Schuester. They were huddled together as Mr. Schue spoke quietly and Rachel grew steadily more uneasy. Any hope that Sue was playing a final prank on the Glee Club faded. If Mr. Schuester had crashed to warn them he obviously thought the information was credible.

"Did you also know," Sue asked, "that Death isn't as big a quitter as the typical Lima resident? If at first It doesn't succeed, It will try and try again. Much like Ben Israel every single day of every year of high school as he tried and failed repeatedly to get into the girls' locker room on my watch. The kid is a pervert and requires the kind of help his family just can't afford." Kurt turned his face away from her, but his eyebrows raised. That was true. "I looked up previously reported events like this." She went on. "Pieced together the orders, who died when It sought them out, who was skipped. Everyone who was skipped…"

_Don't say it._

Kurt looked over his shoulder at Finn and Mercedes clinking their water bottles together and laughing at someone who just did a cannonball into the pool.

"They were all found again." Sue finished and an unsettling foreign look of sympathy entered her eyes. She put a hand on his shoulder. "It came again and again until It could finish the job. The post-mortem photos were so disturbing that I threw up down my best track suit. Porcelain, there were no survivors…"

A cool breeze blew through the party and rippled over the pool water. By the house, someone was messing with the music trying to get it to play something else, but John Denver's 'Rocky Mountain High' continued to waft through the stereo system.

_But the string's already broken and he doesn't really care_

_It keeps changin' fast and it don't last for long_

Kurt's eyes darted up to the longest line of tiki lights as one by one they flickered off and on again as though something dark was devouring their energy as it passed.

"Hummel?" Sue inquired.

Kurt took a step back. "It's here."

Quickly his mind jumped over trying to process the idea that it wasn't over and went straight to the immediate danger. Karofsky, Azimio, and Jacob were still next. Those three and then it would come back around.

He spotted Puck still squabbling with the jocks by the back door to his house and started in that direction, shoving past people who got in his way. He scanned the crowd for Jacob but didn't see his big hair sticking out in the masses. Finn and Mercedes were leaning against a table by one of the tiki lamp posts talking to people from their English Lit class. Mr. Schuester and Rachel had moved over by the shallow end of the pool where they could get some privacy. Rachel was gesturing wildly and looked more riled up than she did before a competition. She started ducking her head around, probably searching the rest of their group out. A coldness settled within him as he realized every one of them was there. A full menu.

"Puck," Kurt called when he was close enough to be heard over the music. "We have a problem. Have you seen Jacob Ben Israel? I think he might be next. We need to find-"

The static pop of shattered glass and electricity blew once behind them and then several more times. Kurt flinched and whipped around, raising his eyes toward the noise. The far line of tiki lamps were firing off and exploding along their string. The people in the pool screamed and swam for the sides, pulling themselves out. Jacob was squatting at the edge recording the girls in their bathing suits and stood, swinging his camera upward to catch what was going on along the lights. Two cheerios rushing out of the pool yanked themselves out and shoved past him as they distanced themselves from the pool.

Jacob stumbled back over the slick pool edge, sneakers squeaking through the water as his legs went out from under him. The back of his head smashed against the edge of the pool with a sickening crunch. An instant secretion of thick red poured down the side into the pool. Long shrieks webbed throughout the party in random areas where people had caught sight of the accident.

"Oh fuck! Did you see that shit?" Azimio clipped Puck's shoulder and shoved past Kurt to get a better view. "Ben Idiot busted his head!" He pointed a thick finger at the pool where the last of the swimmers were hauling themselves out and Jacob's still figure was gaining more attention. There was a slight chuckle in his voice. "Karofsky, did you-"

A screaming girl bumped into Azimio as she ran past him, and he turned with an immediate scowl. He took a step after her. "Woman, watch where you're-" His foot stuck on the step up to the patio and he tripped, reaching out and grabbing the refreshment table with the huge cap and gown frosted cake. It folded under his weight, slipping the sweets down the side and knocking the knife on its handle before Azimio could catch himself. The tip pierced his eyes as he went down hard, burying the blade through his socket and silencing Azimio's started bellow with a choked garble. Kurt gasped and jumped, flipping toward Karofsky as he swore loudly and scrambled backward. He turned and ran hard for the house, barreling into the clean glass of the sliding doors and breaking through it. The glass shattered apart and he collapsed, throat slicing through a jagged spear. He choked and gagged on the instant outpour of blood, falling limp over the glittery glass. The panic spread from the pool to the patio with increasingly sharp cries that cut over the blaring music with bone chilling fright.

"Ah, what the fuck?" Puck exclaimed.

The short flames flickering off the far side lantern across the yard singed the string and burned straight through it. The string of lights fell down with a swing, falling into the water.

Sparks bounced erratically from the electric lanterns on the adjacent line of lights as they too began exploding. A hockey player threw his arms over his head for cover and shoved past the people in front of him, banging into Mr. Schuester's side and making him slip over the wet side of the pool. Rachel reached for him, but he slipped hard and splashed sideways into the pool. The lights in the water sparked and fired jolts of electricity in the water, catching Mr. Schuester in their fatal claws. His body jittered in stiff jerky movements and twitched in the charged water.

Kurt tripped into Puck's side as he stared over his shoulder, pushing them both backward in shock. Rachel stood on the edge of the pool, arms bent at her sides and stared at their teacher's body screaming. Kurt's wide eyes grew and darted around as he flinched and jumped at the commotion around him. Too much was happening at once with no time for any of it to properly compute.

Chaos erupted. Screams from all sides pierced the party as people either stared at the pool, moved minutely closer for a better view, or fled. Those fleeing bumped into anyone in their way, shouting and shoving their way toward the house.

"Fuck, man, was that Schuester?" Puck bellowed, pushing Kurt off of him and back to his senses. Several people clipped his shoulder on the way to the back door, others bypassing the house entirely and running around the side to get to the front yard, desperate for distance or their cars.

Familiar voices cut above the frantic screams.

"Oh my God!" Mercedes took a step toward the pool and screaming Rachel but stopped.

"Mr. Schue?" Finn took a step closer like Mercedes and began jogging toward the pool.

Kurt's mind worked furiously. This wasn't right. Even if it circled back it was happening too quickly. There was no recovery time. No opportunity to regroup. It was too fast to track or slow it down or stop. But the fury in the air stung the night with a deeper darkness. Not only were all three of the last of them taken out, but Death had just circled back and claimed Mr. Schuester. It would turn to the next person on the list. So that meant…

Kurt took off at a run for his best friend. "Mercedes!"

She turned in his direction as the lamps behind her buzzed and popped. Finn recognized his voice and the terror behind it and stopped in his tracks. He saw where Kurt was headed and changed course, shouting over his shoulder with a deep furious baritone that was commanding enough to get through the shock.

"Rachel, get away from the pool!"

Rachel stumbled away from the edge on clumsy zombie feet as the string behind Mercedes singed and split. The one directly over her swung down with dangerous aim. Finn ran for her, but the lamp buzzed and crackled, exploding just as he reached her. The miniature bomb caught Mercedes mid-duck and blew through the side of her head. A hole caved and busted her skull like a shotgun blast. She went down in a heap as the sparks and flames forced Finn to hit the ground with his arms over his head. Kurt tripped in horror, falling to his knees on the grass and staring at his fallen friend in nearly paralyzing shock.

The fire and uncontained electrical bursts ran along the string of wire to the pole stand. Finn grabbed his chest as he stared with his jaw dropped at Mercedes gaping head wound. Several feet away, Kurt shook so hard on the ground that he couldn't even begin to get his legs under him to stand. He could barely get his name out of his trembling lips in warning.

"F-Finn!"

The spurting charges behind him caught the pole, sending dangerous pulses down the wood and exploding. It broke at the middle and the long spear head of the post flew out like a magnet for Finn. It sliced down, catching Finn through the chest and stabbed the ground with enough force to tear through bone. Finn's body jerked against the attack but the light left his eyes in a fraction of a second as he went limp against the grass.

An anguished scream ripped through Kurt from his core, tearing through his throat and polluting the night with unmatched emotion within a cacophony of other screams.

Rachel was as pale as a sheet as she stumbled toward Finn and Mercedes' bodies.

"Kurt, who's next?" Puck hollered from somewhere at his side, grasping the situation quickly. "Who's next?"

Kurt's eyes burned unblinkingly into Finn's grotesquely butchered body in the grass, feeling like his heart was exploding in his chest. He could barely find his voice and when he did it sounded like a weak ghostly version of itself passing through his dazed lips.

"I don't…I don't know." A sharp unsteady breath hitched in his lungs.

"Hummel!" Puck shouted.

Kurt tried to focus his swimming mind. His head flew up at the girl in front of them. "Rachel!" He warned.

She didn't so much as look up from staring at Finn and Mercedes' bodies before the two posts along the side of the house caught the sparking flames and blew in two, firing out like missiles through a flame thrower. They shot toward Rachel, but Puck rushed for her. He almost caught her around the middle, but the flaming posts nailed the area where she was standing, bulldozing through her back. Between blinks, the second one drove through Puck and pinned them both to the ground like morbid garden gnomes.

Blood splattered out against Kurt's face in a jarring spray of dotted crimson streams. He stared up at their mangled bodies from the ground and screamed in harmony with the many shrieks of other partygoers. He was barely able to drag a shaky breath into his lungs before the last post along the house burst. It fired down at him in an arc, too quickly to even raise his arms as a shield. He watched it fly towards him and gasped- -

- -With a hard wince, Finn flinched away from Mercedes and dropped the water bottle in his hands. He stared down at the ground in shock, hands flying up to his chest to feel for the post he felt tear through his heart. His palms slapped against his sweater, but there was no blood or stab or pain. He looked up, but Mercedes' hair was in place too, not blown apart on the side of her head. His eyes flew up to the strung up lights, all hanging harmlessly where they were set up around the perimeter of the party. His chest heaved with quick panicked breaths.

Mercedes chuckled as she narrowed her eyes on him. "You okay, White Boy?"

His eyes searched the party quickly and found his boyfriend standing near the lawn chair they had shared still talking to Coach Sylvester. Kurt was clutching his own chest and shaking violently, and Finn knew he wasn't the only one who just had his fate laid out in front of him.

Finn couldn't hear anything over the loud speakers where someone was trying to get the music to change off of the weird old folksy sounding song it was stuck on.

Kurt turned his head toward him instinctively and caught his eyes across the cluttered party. There was a dark set to his expression, a heavy grimness in his eyes that matched Finn's own bleak gaze. A chill swept through the night.

The static pop of shattered glass and electricity blew once by the pool and then several more times as the lamps exploded rapidly down the string, shooting sparks in every direction. Finn's heart sunk, and screams rose through the darkness.


End file.
